Edwards Enters 2004 Race With a Populist Focus

Democratic Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina announced his candidacy for president Thursday, saying his humble upbringing and political freshness would put an ally of “regular people” in the White House.

“If the American people want a lifelong politician ... that’s not me,” said Edwards, a multimillionaire trial attorney and first-term lawmaker, who did not even vote in several elections before his first run for office in 1998.

The Bush administration, he said, “is many times run by insiders paying too much attention to insider interests.... I am for regular people.”

Edwards took the first serious step toward a White House run by announcing the creation of an official exploratory committee. In doing so, he joined Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry and outgoing Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in making that formal move, which allowed them to begin raising money for the 2004 race.

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri has also decided to open an exploratory committee, associates said Thursday, with his announcement expected in the coming days.

The Democratic Party nominating contest was thrown wide open by the exit last month of former Vice President Al Gore. Candidates are now hurrying to take advantage of federal election rules that make them eligible to start receiving matching campaign funds as of Jan. 1.

So far, the 49-year-old Edwards is the only Southerner in the race, and he appeared eager to seize the populist mantle shunned by other Democrats critical of Gore’s 2000 campaign and his message of the-people-vs.-the-powerful. (Edwards and Kerry were the runners-up when Gore chose Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to be his vice presidential running mate.)

The youthful-looking Edwards, who bills himself as “the people’s senator,” took a similar tack in 1998, running in North Carolina as a political outsider who would represent the little guy. He refused contributions from political action committees, a practice he said Thursday he would follow in his White House bid.

In an interview, Edwards said he was proud of the nearly 20 years he spent as a trial attorney, specializing in personal-injury lawsuits, and said he would bring the same sensibility to the White House. “I’ve been a champion of families and children during some of the most difficult times in their lives, when they were up against usually very powerful opponents,” Edwards said. “They needed someone to fight for them, they needed a champion. Many times I was all they had.”

Several other prospective candidates -- including Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, and Sens. Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Bob Graham of Florida and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut -- also are weighing presidential bids. With Gore’s departure, Lieberman is all but certain to launch his campaign within a few weeks. The potential challengers seemed undeterred by Bush’s popularity in opinion polls and the strong Republican performance in November’s midterm elections.

“For a Democrat to pass it by in 2004 for a better year supposedly down the road probably doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Peter Hart, a veteran Democratic Party polltaker, who recalled the first President Bush’s seeming invulnerability, followed by defeat, in 1992. “We’ve all shared that experience.”

By launching his candidacy with a series of interviews and a hometown news conference in Raleigh, N.C., Edwards made manifest what has been obvious for the better part of the last year. In that time, he has taken all the requisite steps of a modern presidential campaign, stumping in Iowa and New Hampshire -- which kick off the nominating season early next year -- traveling abroad, delivering a series of detailed policy addresses and even signing a contract for an autobiography due out by the end of this year.

Over the last few months, Edwards has proposed the creation of a domestic intelligence agency to bolster anti-terrorism efforts, called for a guarantee of free tuition for first-year students at public universities and community colleges and urged delaying the federal tax cut for those making more than $200,000 a year.

Lately, Edwards has taken to harshly criticizing Bush, faulting his handling of the war on terrorism and accusing him of alienating U.S. allies through a policy of “gratuitous unilateralism.”

“This administration continues to have its priorities out of whack,” Edwards asserted in a speech last month on domestic security. “How this administration can prefer tax cuts for the most fortunate 1% of Americans over domestic defense for 100% of Americans is beyond me.”

Edwards was born in South Carolina, the son of a textile mill supervisor, and spent his teen years in Robbins, N.C., a tiny rural town in the Piedmont region. He was the first member of his family to go to college -- working in the mills during summer breaks -- and became a highly successful trial attorney in Raleigh, winning a $25-million personal injury verdict in 1997 that was the highest in North Carolina history.

He put millions of his own money into his 1998 Senate bid, winning a narrow victory by running a largely positive campaign focused on education and health care.

In seeking the White House, Edwards won’t necessarily have to sacrifice his Senate seat. Under North Carolina law, he can run for both in the May 2004 primary, according to a spokesman for the state Board of Elections.

Edwards was careful Thursday to hedge his presidential hopes by saying he had not decided to give up his Senate seat just yet. That is a decision “down the road,” Edwards said.