U.S. Senate candidate Abhay Patel has yet to be featured in any polls, but he’s already getting lots of media attention.

We interviewed him before he entered the race. Now the Daily Caller has interviewed him. He sat down with Kerry Picket, who is one of their star reporters.

It was an interesting interview and he covered different issues with Picket than he did with us. Here are some highlights.

On Bobby Jindal:

Patel notes that while some will make comparisons between him and former GOP Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, given their similar cultural backgrounds, he asks that people judge him as an individual.

“I can certainly appreciate on the surface why those comparisons would be made, but let me just say two things. One, I don’t know Bobby Jindal. I met him one time in my life. Two, I would say if you look at my history, I think we took a different beat,” Patel said. “I think he ran for office for the first time when he was 26 years old or certainly entered public life. His entire career was in the public sector.”

He explained, “I’m proud to have roots in the world’s largest democracy and being born in its greatest, of course. All I ask is to be judged as an individual. Get to know me. Hear my views. …and I think if [people] do that they’ll see that Bobby Jindal and I don’t have all that much in common other than what’s on the surface, but other than that, I can serve to be the next generation leader in Washington.”

Patel thread the needle more carefully with Picket than he did with us on Jindal. Remember, Bobby Jindal is more popular outside of Louisiana than he is here. Patel still put a lot of distance between him and Jindal, but it was more around Jindal’s lack of private sector background. It helps Patel make the argument that he’s the most outsider candidate in the race.

On who he relates to the most in politics:

Patel points out he relates more to Republican Senators Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Joni Ernst, as well as House Speaker Paul Ryan.

“We’re really seeing an emergence of that disruptive next generation outsider coming. I can name several,” he said, adding, “I would love to join that group of individuals in helping to extend and expand the Republican Party,” he said.

Patel is trying to market himself on his relative youth in the race, he’s only 40. Those are five names that should make the whole spectrum of conservatives happy.

On Donald Trump:

As for Donald Trump, Patel told TheDC that he plans to be at the GOP Convention in Cleveland and will support the presumptive Republican Party nominee.

“I’m hopeful everyone in the Republican Party will do that,” he said. “Allowing Hillary Clinton to be president is not an option to us.”

We did not discuss Donald Trump a whole lot and none of what we discussed made the article. There is no downside to embracing Donald Trump per se in Louisiana. However, it depends how enthusiastic Patel embraces Trump. If he tries to tie himself to Trump like a couple of candidates are already doing, it may backfire.

Here’s some advice from Han Solo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQwCMdq00ng

Abhay Patel is an extremely likable candidate. He’s impressed most people that have come across him. That’s going to be his major asset.

Another major asset is that the Indian-American community actually likes him. He should be able to raise a lot of money from that community.

There is much to like about Patel. He’s a successful businessman who can talk about the economy and actually know what he’s talking about. Patel maybe one of the youngest candidates in the race, but he has more gravitas than many of the others.

His biggest challenge right now is simply getting into the polls. He needs to be listed as an option.

 

If Patel can raise enough money, he will certainly have to be considered one of the dark horse candidates.