Edwards, John

▪ 2005

      Although he had won a primary contest in only one state, John Edwards, a first-term senator from North Carolina, held the second largest number of delegates by the time he withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in March 2004. Further, he had gained a reputation as an effective campaigner, and in July, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (q.v. (Kerry, John )) chose Edwards as his vice presidential running mate. It was the first time since 1960 that two U.S. senators had appeared together on the national ticket of either of the major parties. Despite an energetic campaign, however, Kerry and Edwards lost to their Republican opponents in the election on Nov. 2, 2004.

      Johnny Reid Edwards was born on June 10, 1953, in Seneca, S.C., but the family later moved to Robbins, N.C., where the boy grew up and attended public schools. He was the son of working-class parents and the first member of his family to go to college. After receiving a B.S. degree in textile management from North Carolina State University in 1974, he earned a J.D. degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977. By the mid-1980s he was working as a trial lawyer, specializing in personal-injury cases that involved medical malpractice and product liability, and he was extraordinarily successful, with awards for clients that set records in the state.

      In 1998, in his first attempt to gain public office, Edwards ran successfully for the U.S. Senate. Although only a freshman, he was chosen by his fellow senators to depose witnesses and to deliver arguments in the impeachment trial of Pres. Bill Clinton. Edwards later worked with Senators Edward Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and John McCain, Republican of Arizona, to pass a patients' bill of rights that would guarantee access to medical services, but the measure, which was opposed by the administration of Pres. George W. Bush, did not make it past the House of Representatives. As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Edwards gained knowledge of foreign affairs.

      In January 2003 Edwards announced that he would seek the Democratic nomination for the presidency. His campaign was characterized by the populist theme of “two Americas,” which emphasized the wide disparities between haves and have-nots in such matters as education and health insurance. Contrary to some candidates' support for free trade, he advocated policies aimed at protecting American jobs. At the same time, he expressed a decidedly positive outlook, and he was noted for refraining from criticism of the other Democratic candidates. After his withdrawal from the contest, he actively supported front-runner Kerry, and as the candidate for vice president, Edwards was joined in the campaign by his wife, Elizabeth, also a lawyer.

Robert Rauch

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▪ United States senator

in full  John Reid Edwards 

born June 10, 1953, Seneca, South Carolina, U.S.

 

 U.S. senator, who in 2004 was the running mate of John Kerry (Kerry, John), the Democratic Party's nominee for president.

      He was the son of Wallace Edwards, a textile-mill worker, and Catherine (“Bobbie”) Wade Edwards, a textile worker and later postal worker. He grew up in the mill town of Robbins, North Carolina. The first in his family to attend college, Edwards received a bachelor's degree in textile management from North Carolina State University in 1974 and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1977. That year he also married a fellow law student, Elizabeth Anania. Edwards became a successful attorney, first in Nashville, Tennessee, and then in Raleigh, North Carolina, winning multimillion-dollar verdicts in personal-injury lawsuits. The death of his 16-year-old son, Wade, in an automobile accident in 1996 helped to impel Edwards into public service and philanthropy, and in 1998 he was elected to the U.S. Senate from North Carolina.

      As a senator, Edwards cosponsored a patients' bill of rights and supported education reform. As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, he proposed legislation on strengthening homeland security. Seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, Edwards struck a populist tone, with charismatic stump speeches that evoked his modest upbringing in Robbins. Though Edwards's presidential bid was unsuccessful, John Kerry, the party's eventual nominee, chose him as his running mate. The pair was narrowly defeated in the November elections by incumbent President George W. Bush (Bush, George W.) and Vice President Dick Cheney (Cheney, Dick).

      Edwards subsequently devoted much of his time to antipoverty efforts, becoming director of the newly created Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina in 2005. The following year he announced that he would seek the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2008. Edwards's bid for the presidency got off to an inauspicious start, as he finished second in the Iowa caucus, third in the New Hampshire primary, and third in the South Carolina primary (his native state) in January 2008. In late January he withdrew from the race.

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