Jindal continues campaign tear across Iowa, hoping to influence undecided voters

ANKENY - Bobby Jindal is barnstorming Iowa. The Louisiana governor and Republican candidate for president in recent weeks has been on a relentless campaign tear through the first-in-the-nation caucus state, holding events from river to river.

The tenacious retail campaigning has not yet yielded results in the polls: In two Iowa polls published this week, Jindal registered in the low single digits.

But Jindal thinks Iowa Republican voters are still making up their minds, and he intends to help them.

'Anywhere between two-thirds and 90 percent of the voters here say they're going to make their minds up later. I think that they're smart. They're kicking the tires,” Jindal told reporters Friday after speaking to more than 200 students and faculty at Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary. 'We hear more and more people tell me, ‘You're my choice,' or, ‘You're in the top three.' And that's great. I think that the more they listen to us, the more they take a look at my record, the more they give us a chance, we're going to earn more and more support.”

Jindal has held more campaign events in Iowa than any other candidate from either party except for Rick Santorum, according to The Des Moines Register.

'We're going to every county. We do town halls. We'll stay for up to three hours answering every last question,” Jindal said. 'And I think that a lot of candidates are making a mistake of skipping Iowa or coming here late or just doing a couple of ads. I don't think you convince voters that way.”

Jindal on Friday gave his testimony, telling the audience at Faith Baptist how he 'found Jesus Christ.” He talked about receiving a Bible as a Christmas gift from a friend, later reading it after his grandfather's death and how his seminal moment occurred while watching a Christian film in church.

'It just hit me,” Jindal said.

Jindal also spoke about what he said is an 'assault on religious liberty” by liberals, 'the elite” and the media.

'Even more important than who we elect as our next president, we need a spiritual revival,” Jindal told the crowd.

Jindal also answered a few students' questions. He cautioned against accepting refugees from Syria out of concern that terrorist groups may plant terrorists among the refugees sent here, said a culture change - not more gun control laws - is needed to stop mass shootings. and said all of President Barack Obama's executive orders on immigration should be repealed.

Brenda Hendrickson, a secretary at the school, said she enjoyed Jindal's speech and thought it was good for the school's students to hear his message.

As a Republican voter, however, Hendrickson said she has a candidate she is 'more likely” to vote for.

After his remarks to the school, he expressed to reporters his disappointment with the criteria established for the next Republican debate, which will be televised by CNBC on Wednesday in Colorado.

Jindal thinks polls from the early voting states should factor into how the GOP's expansive field of candidates is whittled down to the top 10 for the main debate.

'For the last 50 years, our nominee has always won either Iowa or New Hampshire. I don't think that changes in this election,” Jindal said. 'There's a saying in Louisiana: You go hunting where the ducks are. Well, the first votes are here, and that's where the focus should be.”