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Bobby Jindal Exits Presidential Race, Returns To Louisiana With 8 More Weeks As Governor

Republican presidential candidate Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, addresses the Sunshine Summit in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JOHN RAOUX
Republican presidential candidate Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, addresses the Sunshine Summit in Orlando, Fla., Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015. CREDIT: AP PHOTO/JOHN RAOUX

Louisiana governor and GOP presidential candidate Bobby Jindal announced on Tuesday night that he’d be exiting the presidential race and returning to Louisiana where his incumbent will be elected on Saturday.

“This is not my time,” he said during a Fox News interview.

Jindal, who never gained much traction in the primary and recently was polling at under one percent, has just less than two months as head of Lousiana, a state that has been struggling under his leadership. Currently, his disapproval rating has hit a historic 70 percent.

Since Jindal took office in 2008, Louisiana has earned some dubious honors. The state has the largest gender pay gap in the country, with women making 66 cents for every dollar a man earns.

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A study by the Violence Policy Center published in late January found the state also has the second-highest rate of gun deaths in the nation, and the state’s rate of incarceration currently leads the U.S. — and thus, the world.

As Jindal’s administration slashed millions from the budget for STD prevention, and prevented new Planned Parenthood clinics from opening, Louisiana developed the second-highest rate of gonorrhea in the country, the third-highest rate of syphilis, and the fourth-highest rate of chlamydia. Despite these alarming numbers, Jindal signed a bill in 2014 that bars anyone affiliated with Planned Parenthood from teaching students about sexual health or family planning.

And though 16.6 percent of Louisiana residents lack health insurance, one of the highest rates of uninsured people in the country, Jindal refused the federally funded expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, and declined to set up a state-based health exchange.

Over Jindal’s time in the governor’s mansion, the state’s higher education system has also taken a major hit, with more money cut per student than almost any other state in the country.

Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who is running for Jindal’s seat in deep-red Louisiana, is trailing state representative John Bel Edwards (D) in the November 21 runoff for governor by double digits, at least in part because of Jindal’s unpopularity.