Who is Bobby Jindal?

 Jindal elected Governor of Louisiana

The new hope for Louisiana. The Governor-elect who is virtually unknown to the rest of the country because the media paid him virtually no attention, though he breaks their molds.

When Bobby Jindal lost his first Louisiana governor’s race four years ago, some experts told him that white people here were not ready to elect a dark-skinned son of Indian immigrants.

On Tuesday, as he dashed across the state in a victory caravan after his historic Saturday landslide win, Louisiana’s Republican governor-elect had a message for his rural supporters: Thank you for proving the conventional political wisdom wrong.

Jindal, 36 — who will become the first Indian American governor of any state, the youngest current governor in the country, and the first nonwhite to lead Louisiana since Reconstruction — refused to believe that his ethnicity was an obstacle to his political dreams.

I watched him on television, celebrating his victory with his family and supporters. You could see goodness in him, sincerity than transcends the political moment. I wondered…who is he? What’s his story?

He essentially never stopped campaigning after his 2003 defeat to Democratic Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, an election in which he failed to win over many of the white rural voters who could have been expected to love his conservative positions.

Jindal was convinced that if voters got to know him, they would see him as a fellow native son from Baton Rouge, not an exotic foreigner with an Ivy League degree.

So he made more than 70 trips to northern Louisiana cities such as Shreveport, and the devout Catholic seemingly attended Sunday Mass at every small church in the state, even after he was elected to represent suburban New Orleans in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004.

Consider that thought alone. He is a devout Catholic who always found the local church for Mass on his campaign tours, and even after he was sent to Washington.

He always believed Blanco beat him simply because she was better known. “I don’t think there’s any substitute for staring someone in the eye and listening,” he said.

Jindal’s tireless tours, especially in the conservative northern parishes considered key to his earlier defeat, impressed seasoned political observers, who said that by the time his rivals entered this year’s race, Jindal’s hard-earned backing in the rural stronghold was insurmountable.

“I have never seen anyone work so hard,” said Bernie Pinsonat, a Louisiana pollster and political consultant. “I had a local legislator tell me that he had to go to church more often, because Jindal had been to his church more times than he had.”

The post below reflects on the power of influence that just living your Christian faith can have, and this profile in this one news feature about Jindal is proof of that. His faith carries through to his work ethic, which is as it should be for people of faith. He looks people in the eye and listens, which is the behavior of someone with an honorable character.

Further down, the article remarks on the difference Jindal made throughout the state just “by repeatedly showing up.”

The politics – and ministry – of presence.

The media are noticing. He will be one of the featured guests on Fox News Sunday….along with First Lady Laura Bush.

Earlier this week, before I knew any of this and while I was watching that victory celebration, intrigued by Bobby Jindal and wondering who he is, I found an email within hours from Helen Hitchcock with a link that has some interesting answers.

0 Comment

  • Dear Sheila,

    Thank you for sharing this amazing news! I can’t believe that this historic win hasn’t received more national press–I was completely unaware of Governor-Elect Jindal until I read your blog this morning. Thank you for sharing news and information. I hope we see more on your blog site about the Governor’s initiatives and impact on Louisiana.

    Regards,

    Jeanne De Vita

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