Bobby Jindal sets date for announcement of presidential plans
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is set to declare his 2016 plans on June 24 in New Orleans, Louisiana, according to his recently formed exploratory committee.
"If I decide to announce on June 24th that I will seek the Republican nomination for President, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction," Jindal said in a statement from his exploratory committee, formed last month. "We don't need just small changes, we need a dramatically different path."
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The two-term Louisiana governor also charged that the United States "is in serious trouble" and that the country's problems "won't be fixed by just sending Republicans to Congress."
"It will only be fixed by a President who is willing to make hard decisions and who has the ideas to change our country's future," Jindal, a former congressman, added.
Jindal, who is Indian American, has road-tested a campaign promise to "restore the American dream," as he said at Florida's Economic Growth Forum on Tuesday. He reiterated that pledge in setting his 2016 announcement date, knocking President Obama for "turning [the American dream] into a European nightmare."
Jindal trails most of the other presidential hopefuls in an already crowded Republican field. Only 24 percent of Republicans said they would consider voting for him as the GOP's nominee, according to a CBS News poll conducted in May. Other governors like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who also have yet to declare their presidential intentions, draw higher polling numbers.
Jindal made a splash on the national stage when he gave the Republican response to Obama's first state of the Union address -- a speech that drew criticism from both sides of the aisle at the time.
If he runs, the Louisiana Republican has vowed to repeal and replace Obama's Affordable Care Act, reform national education standards like Common Core, rebuild America's military, and make the country energy independent.