Lousiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) rebuffed Mitt Romney's claim that President Obama won reelection because of "gifts" to minorities and young voters, calling the statement "wrong."
"That is absolutely wrong," Jindal said at Wednesday's session of the annual Republican Governors Association meeting in Las Vegas, according to the Washington Examiner's Byron York. "I absolutely reject that notion."
“I don’t think that represents where we are as a party and where we’re going as a party," Jindal continued. “That has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election: If we’re going to continue to be a competitive party and win elections on the national stage and continue to fight for our conservative principles, we need two messages to get out loudly and clearly: One, we are fighting for 100 percent of the votes, and secondly, our policies benefit every American who wants to pursue the American dream. Period. No exceptions."
The New York Times reported Wednesday afternoon on Romney's comments, which he made during a conference call with his presidential campaign's national finance committee.
"With regards to the young people, for instance, a forgiveness of college loan interest, was a big gift," Romney said. "Free contraceptives were very big with young college-aged women. And then, finally, Obamacare also made a difference for them, because as you know, anybody now 26 years of age and younger was now going to be part of their parents' plan, and that was a big gift to young people. They turned out in large numbers, a larger share in this election even than in 2008."
Romney also said that "free health care" was a "big plus" for Hispanic and African-American voters, who overwhelmingly supported the president in last week's election.
While Jindal actively campaigned for Romney during the general election, the Louisiana governor has recently issued pointed criticism on Romney's candidacy. In a Tuesday interview with The Huffington Post's Jon Ward, Jindal said Romney did little to inspire voters on his plan for the country.
"Mitt Romney is an honorable man. He's a good honest man. He deserves our respect, and our gratitude," Jindal said. "The reality of it, the campaign was too much about biography. It wasn't enough about a vision of where they wanted to take our country, and how they would do it ... The reality is people are not being inspired by a biography."
This post was updated to include more of Jindal's remarks.
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