Governor of the State of Louisiana
Governor Bobby Jindal
Born: 10 June 1971
Birthplace: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Governor of Louisiana, 2008-present
Name at birth: Piyush Jindal
Bobby Jindal of Louisiana is the first Indian-American to become the governor of an American state. A brainy conservative with special expertise in public health, he is widely regarded as a rising star in the national Republican Party; radio commentator Rush Limbaugh once called him "the next Ronald Reagan." Jindal grew up in Baton Rouge and went to Brown University, where he earned degrees in public policy and biology in 1992. He attended Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a Master of Letters degree (M.Litt.) in 1994, and worked briefly as a consultant for McKinsey and Company. He was only 24 when he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals in 1996. Five years later he was appointed Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by George W. Bush, serving from 2001-03. He was elected to Congress from Louisiana's First District in 2004, and re-elected in 2006. He was elected governor of Louisiana in 2007 and was sworn in on 14 January 2008. Bobby Jindal was reelected for a second four-year term in 2011.
Bobby Jindal married his wife, Supriya, in 1997. She was born in Metairie, Louisiana and went to high school with Jindal in Baton Rouge, but they didn't begin dating until 1996. They have a daughter, Selia, and two sons, Shaan and Slade... Jindal's parents emigrated from India to the U.S. in 1970. His parents are Hindu; Jindal converted to Catholicism in high school... Jindal also ran for governor of Louisiana in 2003, losing in a runoff to Democrat Kathleen Blanco... His legal first name is Piyush but he took the nickname Bobby as a child. He told CBS News in 2009, "Every day after school, I'd come home and I'd watch The Brady Bunch. And I identified with Bobby, you know? He was about my age, and Bobby stuck."
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