John Edwards presidential campaign, 2004

Infobox U.S. federal election campaign, 2008

committee = John Edwards for President 2004
campaign = U.S. presidential election, 2004
candidate = Johnny Reid Edwards
U.S. Senator from North Carolina 1999–2005
cand_id = C00431205
status = Announced Sept. 14, 2003
Withdrew March 2, 2004
affiliation = Democratic Party
headquarters = Chapel Hill, North Carolina
receipts =
slogan = Let's make one America

In 2000, Edwards unofficially began his presidential campaign when he began to seek speaking engagements in Iowa, the site of the nation's first party caucuses. On January 2 2003, Edwards began fundraising without officially campaigning by forming an exploratory committee. On September 15 2003, Edwards fulfilled a promise he made a year earlier as a guest on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" to unofficially announce his intention to seek the 2004 Democratic Presidential nomination. The next morning, Edwards made the announcement officially from his hometown. He declined to run for reelection to the Senate in order to focus on his presidential run. Edwards' campaign was chaired by North Carolina Democratic activist Ed Turlington.

As Edwards had been building support 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. [ [http://www.hillnews.com/news/050703/edwards.aspx "Hill News"] , May 7, 2003]

Edwards' "stump speech" spoke of two Americas, with one composed of the wealthy and privileged, and the other of the hard-working common man, [http://quote.wikipedia.org/wiki/John Edwards#Two Americas] causing the media to often characterize Edwards as a populist. [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30354-2004Jul6.html "The Washington Post"] , July 6, 2004] [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3872003.stm BBC News] ]

Edwards struggled to gain substantial support, but his poll numbers began to rise steadily weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Edwards had a surprising second place finish with the support of 32% of delegates, behind only John Kerry's 39% and ahead of former front-runner Howard Dean at 18%. One week later in the New Hampshire primary, Edwards finished in fourth place behind Kerry, Dean and Wesley Clark, with 12%. During the February 3 primaries, Edwards won the South Carolina primary, [ [http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P04/SC-D.phtml#0203 2004 South Carolina primary results] ] lost to Clark in Oklahoma, and lost to Kerry in the other states. Edwards garnered the second largest number of second-place finishes, again falling behind Clark. [ [http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/dates/02/03/index.html CNN] ]

Dean withdrew from the contest, leaving Edwards the only major challenger to Kerry. In the Wisconsin primary on February 17, Edwards finished second to Kerry with 34% of the vote.

Edwards largely avoided attacking Kerry until a February 29 2004 debate in New York, where he characterized him as a "Washington insider" and mocked Kerry's plan to form a committee to examine trade agreements.

In the Super Tuesday primaries on March 2, Kerry finished well ahead in nine of the ten states voting, and Edwards' campaign ended. In Georgia, Edwards finished only slightly behind Kerry but, failing to win a single state, chose to withdraw from the race. He announced his official withdrawal at a Raleigh, North Carolina press conference on March 3. Edwards' withdrawal made major media outlets relatively early on the evening of Super Tuesday, at about 6:30 p.m. CST, before polls had closed in California and before caucuses in Minnesota had even begun. It is thought that the withdrawal influenced many people in Minnesota to vote for other candidates, which may partially account for the strong Minnesota finish of Dennis Kucinich.Or|date=September 2007 Edwards did win the presidential straw poll conducted by the Independence Party of Minnesota.

After withdrawing from the race, he went on to win the April 17 Democratic caucuses in his home state of North Carolina, [ [http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P04/NC-D.phtml 2004 North Carolina caucuses results] ] making him the only Democratic candidate besides Kerry to win nominating contests in two states.

2004 vice presidential nomination

On July 6 2004 Kerry announced that Edwards would be his running mate; the decision was widely hailed in public opinion polls and by Democratic leaders. Though many Democrats supported Edwards' nomination, others criticized the selection for Edwards' perceived lack of experience. The nomination caused the Chamber of Commerce network to throw its support to George W. Bush due to Edwards' opposition to
tort reform. [ [http://www.pointoflaw.com/archives/000488.php PointofLaw.com | PointOfLaw Forum: Democrats' support for trial lawyers polarizes business community ] ] In the vice presidential debate, Dick Cheney incorrectly told Edwards they never met due to Edwards' frequent absences from the Senate. The media later found at least one videotape of Cheney and Edwards meeting.

Kerry's campaign advisor Bob Shrum later reported in "Time" magazine that Kerry said he wished he'd never picked Edwards, and the two have since stopped speaking to each other. [ [http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1626498-2,00.html Kerry's Regrets About John Edwards - TIME ] ] Edwards said in his concession speech, "You can be disappointed, but you cannot walk away. This fight has just begun."

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