The Aspen Institute hosts Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards, the Democratic Party's 2004 Vice Presidential nominee, as a featured speaker at a special installment of the McCloskey Speaker Series. The series is made possible by a gift from the McCloskey Family Charitable Foundation.
Johnny Reid "John" Edwards (born June 10, 1953) was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004, and a one-term U.S. Senator from North Carolina. On December 27, 2006, he announced his entry into the 2008 Presidential election.
Edwards was a trial lawyer before entering politics. He defeated incumbent Republican Lauch Faircloth in North Carolina's 1998 Senate election and during his six-year term sought the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election.
He eventually became the Democratic candidate for Vice President, the running mate of presidential nominee Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. After Edwards and Kerry lost the election to the incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, Edwards formed the One America Committee and 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.