Bobby Jindal drops out of US presidential race

Bobby Jindal hoped to concentrate on fighting for the presidency when his governorship expired. Picture: AFP/Getty

Telling Fox News “this is not my time”, he said he was not ready to endorse another candidate, but intended to support the eventual Republican presidential nominee.

The governor, who is term-limited and will be out of office in January, says he will then work with a think-tank he started a few years ago, America Next.

Mr Jindal, 44, America’s first elected Indian-American governor, focused his entire campaign effort on the early voting state of Iowa, but never won much support there against higher-profile Republican contenders Donald Trump and Ben Carson.

His fundraising lagged and his low poll numbers kept him off the main debate stages. “I’ve come to the realisation that this is not my time,” he said, as he announced the decision to suspend his campaign.

He said his think-tank would devise “a blueprint for making this the American century”.

“Going forward, I believe we have to be the party of growth and we can never stop being the party that believes in opportunity. We cannot settle for the left’s view of envy and division,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Carson was facing new questions about his foreign policy capabilities.

One of his closest advisers, Armstrong Williams, said Mr Carson was having intense briefings with former US State Department and military officials, but admitted the retired neurosurgeon sometimes struggled to explain foreign affairs on the campaign trail.

The New York Times published a story quoting one of Mr Carson’s advisers saying the candidate had trouble grasping the complexities of the Middle East.

Former CIA agent Duane Clarridge told the newspaper Mr Carson needed briefings so “we can make him smart”.