John Edwards, born Johnny Reid Edwards, is a politician, first as a one-term U.S. Senator from North Carolina, then the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 Presidential election.
He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina's 1998 Senate election, and during his six-year term, sought the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2004 presidential election.
He eventually became the candidate for Vice President, the running mate of presidential nominee Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.
After Edwards and Kerry lost the election to incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Edwards began working full time at the One America Committee, a political action committee he established in 2001.
He was appointed director of the Center on Poverty, Work and Opportunity at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. He was also a consultant for Fortress Investment Group LLC.
A hugely successful trial lawyer before entering politics, Edwards sought the presidency again in 2007-2008 but could not overcome the dueling candidacies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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