Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal announced late Tuesday he would suspend his presidential campaign after failing to gain traction in the crowded Republican primary field.
In a statement announcing his exit from the 2016 race, Jindal said running has “been an honor, but this is not my time.”
Discussing why his candidacy did not take off on Fox News, Jindal said, "We spent a lot of time developing detailed policy papers and given this crazy, unpredictable election season clearly there just wasn’t a lot of interest in those policy papers."
While attempting to break out from the bottom up the pack, Jindal went after frontrunner Donald Trump with some of the sharpest attacks of the campaign. Jindal called Trump "unstable," "a narcissist," "unserious," and "a carnival act."
The rhetoric, however, did little to attract support.
Jindal failed to make the main stage in any of the four Republican primary debates. He instead was relegated to the early debates against other low-polling candidates.
And though he focused much of his campaign in the first caucus state of Iowa, he never made it above the low-single digits in most polls.
In the most recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll, just 27 percent of Republican voters said they could imagine supporting him.
The outgoing GOP governor becomes the third Republican to end his 2016 race.
Jindal announced he would be returning to work at the think tank America Next "where I will be outlining a blueprint for making this the American century."
His former rivals were quick to express thanks for his contributions to the race. Jindal, though, said he has not given much thought to endorsing any of his GOP colleagues.
"I know the press loves to see whether a politician endorses another. The reality is though I don’t think people care. I think at the end of the day, I trust the American voters to select our nominee and the next president," he said.
"I didn't know that he dropped out but I'm going to ask for his support," Jeb Bush said when asked by NBC News for his reaction to Jindal's decision.
