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Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards is to exit the
race Wednesday, after failing to win early contests.
He is expected to officially end his bid during a speech on
poverty in New Orleans,
with his wife and three children at his side, the Associated Press reports. Elisabeth
Edwards, who is battling a recurrence of cancer, and the children have been absent
from the campaign trail since New
Hampshire.
One of Edwards’ close advisers told the Associated Press,
under condition of anonymity, that the former North Carolina senator decided to leave the
presidential race after losing in several early contests to rivals and fellow
Democrats Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
The adviser added that Edwards would not immediately endorse
either candidate. He has had private conversations with both Clinton and Obama
in recent days, according to media reports.
He was defeated in contests in Iowa,
New Hampshire, Nevada
and his home state of South Carolina,
and explained that he would continue the campaign to the convention. The AP
notes that he has succeeded in collecting 56 delegates. His departure will leave Obama and Clinton alone in the
Democratic field ahead of Super Tuesday, on Feb. 5, when 22 states hold
primaries to select the party’s nominee for the November presidential election.
Edwards will now be better able to support his wife through
her grueling health problems. The Edwards announced last March that Elisabeth’s
supposedly cured breast cancer had returned, but that the campaign would continue.
The former senator focused his bid for the Democratic
nomination on helping the middle class and on fighting poverty; he offered a
plan for universal health care before both Obama and Clinton and was the first
to ask Congress to stop funding the war.
The 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee nevertheless
failed to equal his opponents’ fundraising efforts; he placed second in the
first poll in Iowa,
then placed third in subsequent caucuses.
The adviser also revealed to the AP that Edwards next plans to
work with Habitat for Humanity at the volunteer-fueled rebuilding project
Musicians’ Village.
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