Louisiana voters are experiencing a bad case of buyer’s remorse for electing Republican governor Bobby Jindal. The once popular governor who was highly touted as a future presidential prospect, has governed the state so poorly that only 28 percent of Louisiana voters approve of his job performance as compared to 59 percent who disapprove of his performance as governor. Perhaps even more astonishing, in a hypothetical presidential match up, Jindal would lose the state by seven points to Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Public Policy Polling found that Louisiana voters would choose Clinton over Jindal by a 47-40 margin if the election were held today. To put that number in perspective, Mitt Romney defeated Barack Obama by a lopsided 58-40 margin in the state. Thus, Jindal would run 25 points worse than Romney’s showing versus Obama in 2012 if he were pitted against Hillary Clinton. Even nearly one in five Louisiana Republicans would prefer Hillary Clinton to their governor. Clinton enjoys a 17 point advantage with Louisiana women and almost breaks even with men trailing just 44-42.
The Republican brand is in such disrepute that even Chris Christie and Rand Paul, two of the probable GOP front runners for the party’s nomination, also fare poorly. Rand Paul leads a hypothetical contest with Clinton 45-44, while Chris Christie trails Clinton 42-41. Jindal’s performance versus Clinton is similar to neighboring Texas’ Governor Rick Perry’s showing. Hillary Clinton would defeat Perry 48-44 in Texas in a hypothetical presidential race. The job performance of Republican governors in deep red Southern states is so dismal, that red state voters would not even vote to elect their home state governors in a race against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
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Republican governors have not shown they have the capacity to lead or to govern and as such they have yet to identify a presidential candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton at the national level. At this point, it is not even clear the Republicans could win states as traditionally Republican as Texas and Louisiana. “favorite son” candidates have had their reputations tarnished not by negative campaign ads, but by their own inability to effectively run the states they are in charge of governing.
Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal was once considered one of the promising rising stars of the GOP and considered a likely presidential candidate. However, his inability to govern has essentially rendered him irrelevant to the GOP’s future. Jindal is not even politically viable in his own state despite Louisiana being over twenty points more Republican than the nation as a whole in the 2012 presidential race. A Republican who is unable to carry Louisiana is in sorry shape. Bobby Jindal’s presidential aspirations, if he still has any, have to be considered nothing more than a pipe dream given that he is no longer even politically viable in his own deep red state.
Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.
