Edwards, John Reid

Edwards, John Reid, 1953–, U.S. politician, b. Seneca, S.C., grad. North Carolina State Univ. (B.A., 1974), Univ. of North Carolina (J.D., 1977). The son of a textile-mill worker and a postal employee, he was raised in a small North Carolina town and was the first person in his family to attend college. For two decades he had a successful practice as a trial lawyer, specializing in personal injury cases. A vigorous and photogenic Democrat, Edwards turned to politics in 1998, defeating the Republican incumbent to become a U.S. senator from North Carolina. In office, he served on the intelligence committee and supported such causes as affirmative action, abortion rights, and the reform of health-care insurance and campaign finance laws. Edwards ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, but was picked by the eventual nominee, John Kerry, as his running mate. Kerry and Edwards lost to President Bush and Vice President Cheney in the Nov., 2004, election. In Dec., 2006, Edwards annnounced his candidacy for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, but his candidacy was overshadowed in Mar., 2007, by the revelation that his wife's cancer (which had been diagnosed and treated in 2004) had returned and was incurable, though not untreatable.