Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal says that he is "thinking" and "praying" about whether to run for president in 2016, but that he won't decide until 2015.
"I’m thinking more likely sometime next calendar year, so certainly not December. It may not even be as early as January," Jindal told nationally syndicated talk show host
Hugh Hewitt Wednesday. "So it’s sometime early next year."
Jindal touted his record as the Republican governor of Louisiana, comparing himself to President Barack Obama when he first ran in 2008.
"I’ve actually, unlike the president, I’ve actually run something, both not only as governor, but previously to that," he said.
"We can show that we’ve turned around our economy," he said. "We’ve showed that we cut our state budget 26 percent. We have cut taxes. We've not raised taxes. We cut 28,000 state government jobs, [we have] a booming private sector economy, more people working than ever before, and an economy that’s grown twice as fast as the national economy."
Jindal said that he's partial to governors running for president because they come with executive experience.
"I like governors," he said. "I think they’ve got proven experience with balanced budgets. They’ve made executive decisions."
"I’d certainly look for our ranks, and we’ve got some great, great leaders across the country, conservative Republicans, and I hope a bunch of them run," he added.
The Republican said his decision to run will not be hindered by what others decide to do.
"I wouldn’t stay out of the race simply because I had friends running," Jindal told Hewitt. "I imagine that regardless of what decision I make, I will have multiple friends running."
"I think that’s a good thing," he said. "It would be good to have too many good choices rather than having to pick the least bad candidate."
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