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John Reid Edwards (born June 10, 1953) is a U.S. Senator from North Carolina. He is a candidate in the 2004 Democratic primary. With the withdrawal of former Vermont governor Howard Dean on February 18 2004, Edwards was the sole remaining serious challenger to the Democratic frontrunner, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry.
Edwards was born in Seneca, South Carolina, and spent his formative years in the town of Robbins, North Carolina. His father was a textile mill worker, while his mother was a postal employee. The first person in his family to attend college, Edwards briefly attended Clemson University in South Carolina, where he was passed over for a football scholarhip, before transferring to North Carolina State University. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in texile technology in 1974, and later earned a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, both with honors. While at UNC-Chapel Hill, he met and married his wife, fellow law student Elizabeth Anania.
Before entering politics, Edwards was a successful trial attorney who represented families and children that had been wrongly injured by negligent corporate manufacturers and municipal entities; Edwards made his personal fortune of millions of dollars in the process. The highlight of his legal career was a personal injury lawsuit against Sta-Rite, the manufacturer of a defective pool drain which seriously injured Valerie Lakey, a Cary, North Carolina girl, on June 24, 1993. Turning down all offers of settlement from the company, Edwards pressed the case forward until he secured a $25,000,000 award from the jury, the largest personal injury award in North Carolina history. Fellow lawyers and law students crowded the courtroom to hear Edwards' closing arguments, while he spoke to the jury for two straight hours without referring to notes in an emotional appeal.
Drawing on his experience in personal injury cases, Edwards has characterized himself as a defender of "the little guy," although his critics have alleged that Edwards only took on cases that he was sure of winning and that would result in substantial financial settlements. Scrutiny has fallen upon one of Edwards specialties, infant cerebral palsy cases, where scientific evidence has recently suggested that birth conditions only rarely cause the disorder.
Edwards and his wife Elizabeth have four children. Their first two, Wade and Catherine, were born soon after John and Elizabeth's marriage. Just one month prior to the beginning of testimony in the Lakey case in 1996, Edwards lost his son, Wade, in an automobile accident; in remembrance of his son, Edwards wears Wade's Outward Bound pin on his suit jacket. Following Wade's death, Edwards and his wife chose to have children again; their two youngest, Emma Claire (1999) and Jack (2001) were conceived with the aid of fertility treatments. The Edwards family resides in Raleigh, North Carolina and Washington DC; Edwards also owns a beach home near Wilmington, North Carolina.
In December 2003, during his presidential campaign, Edwards (with John Auchard) published Four Trials (ISBN 0-74324-4974), a biographical book focusing on his legal career.
Both the success of the Lakey case (which Edwards' called "the best lawyering of my life") and his son's death (Edwards had hoped his son would eventually join him in private law practice) prompted Edwards to leave the legal profession and seek public office. A Democrat, Edwards won election to the U.S. Senate in 1998 by defeating the favored incumbent Republican, Lauch Faircloth.
Edwards' skill as a trial attorney was evident during President Bill Clinton's 1999 Senate impeachment trial. Edwards, who was responsible for the deposition of witnesses Monica Lewinsky and Vernon Jordan, played a critical role in the Senate proceedings that eventually ended in the President's acquittal.
During the 2000 Presidential campaign, Edwards made Democratic nominee Al Gore's Vice Presidentialial nominee short list (along with John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, Gore's eventual pick), and in November 2000, People magazine named Edwards as its choice for the "sexiest politician." Edwards serves on several Senate committees, including the prestigious Intelligence and Judicial committees.
Edwards unofficially began his presidential campaign as early as 2001, when he began to seek speaking engagements in Iowa, the site of the nation's first party cacuses. On September 15, 2003, Edwards unofficially announced his intention to seek the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The next morning, Edwards made the announcement official from his hometown, Robbins, North Carolina. He declined to run for re-election to the Senate in that same year.
As Edwards had been building support for a presidential bid essentially since his election to the Senate, he led the initial campaign fundraising, amassing over $7 million during the first quarter of 2003, more than half of which came from individuals associated with the legal profession, particularly Edwards' fellow trial lawyers, their families, and employees.
After campaigning for most of 2003, Edwards' campaign struggled to gain large support in the Democratic Party. But in early 2004, weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Edwards began to catch fire and his support and poll numbers began to rise steadily. Edwards' late stage momentum, as well as his departure from the negative campaigning which characterized other leading candidates, carried him into a surprising second place finish in Iowa, behind only John Kerry and ahead of former front-runner Howard Dean. Edwards finished with 12% support in the New Hampshire primary one week later, essentially tied for third place position with Wesley Clark.
As Kerry appeared to claim the front runner position following wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, many Democrats speculated on the desirability of a Kerry-Edwards ticket; however, Edwards dismissed the possibility of a vice presidential nomination on January 28, 2004.
Edwards' presidential aspirations were boosted when, on February 3, 2004, he won the South Carolina Democratic primary with 46% of the Democratic vote, outshowing Kerry's 30% result. Edwards had declared that he "must win" the state in order to remain in the race. Edwards also polled ahead of Kerry in the Oklahoma primary that same day, losing that state to Clark by less than 1,300 votes.
The following week, on February 10, Edwards finished second place in the southern states of Virginia and Tennessee, well behind frontrunner Kerry in both states. Edwards had hoped to capitalize on a southern victory to boost his campaign, but he vowed to remain in the presidential race through the Super Tuesday primaries in early March. Following Wesley Clark's withdrawal from the race, Edwards emerged as the leading opposition to Kerry. On February 17 his campaign gained further momentum when he nearly defeated Kerry in the Wisconsin primary.
John Edwards should not be confused with talk show host John Edward.Early Years
Legal Career
Senate Term
Presidential Campaign
