While the North Carolina senator was in churches and bars in South Carolina on Sunday touting his message of "two Americas," Kerry was in North Dakota stumping for votes. Members of Kerry's family worked South Carolina.

In South Carolina, where Edwards is counting on a win, Kerry had 23 percent of the vote and Edwards 24 percent, according to the latest Zogby poll, released Sunday.

One-time front-runner Howard Dean and retired Gen. Wesley Clark were at 8 percent, the Rev. Al Sharpton was at 7 percent, Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman had 4 percent and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich was at 1 percent.

Still, South Carolina is up for grabs as 23 percent of likely voters remain undecided.

They include retired teacher Mildred Gilliard of Georgetown. Gilliard said she is torn between Edwards and Kerry. She said she will vote for the candidate who can do something about the economy, high-priced medicine and education.

Sharpton was the only other Democratic presidential candidate stumping in South Carolina on Sunday. The others were focusing their efforts on the six other states that vote Tuesday: Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota and Oklahoma.

Sharpton preached Sunday morning at Carpenterville Baptist Church in North Augusta before attending a town hall meeting in Aiken.

At black churches in Columbia and Georgetown, Edwards talked of an America divided by two systems of health care, education and taxes. His "Two Americas" campaign theme focuses on lingering class and racial divisions that he hopes his children and grandchildren will see disappear.

Hoarse from a long day of stumping across South Carolina, Edwards saw the two Americas firsthand during twin stops Sunday at Charleston bars during the Super Bowl.

Edwards first rolled into LJ's Soul Food Cafe on not-yet-gentrified upper King Street, where he glad-handed black politicians and football fans alike in the partially filled, predominantly black bar. Then he shed his blue suit coat, loosened his tie and donned a Carolina Panthers jacket.

"You are pulling for the Panthers, aren't you?" he asked a table filled with people munching on chicken wings and sipping beer.

"Of course," they shouted in unison.

On his next stop, Edwards nudged his way through a predominantly white college crowd of hundreds of football fans at Manny's in the more ritzy downtown section of historic Charleston.

There, where the Super Bowl special was an $11 bucket of Coors Light, he posed for pictures as one young campaign supporter after another huddled close for a keepsake shot.

Afterward, a member of the national press corps observed, "We just went to the two Americas."

On Sunday morning, Edwards played to the predominantly black 2,500-member congregation of Bible Way Church in Columbia by promising racial equality.

"In our America, the family you are born into and the color of your skin will never control what you do," Edwards said.

State Sen. Darrell Jackson, D-Columbia, who is pastor of Bible Way Church, said Edwards is the only one who's had a consistent message on poverty. He pointed to Edwards' upbringing as the son of a mill worker in Seneca as something most blacks can relate to.

"I pray to God that the next president of this country is someone who has walked the path we have walked," Jackson said.

Bible Way Church member Valerena Walker of Columbia also supports Edwards.

"He understands us, and he has the same background," she said. "If you put a billionaire in there, they will never understand what it's like to be broke."

State Sen. Robert Ford, D-Charleston, predicted after the sermon that Kerry's campaign will collapse because, he said, "it has no substance."

In Georgetown, retired federal worker Dean Smith of Pawleys Island is pulling for Edwards.

"I like his position as middle of the road," he said. "I would support anybody" against President Bush.

Former state Sen. William Doar of Georgetown took a swipe at Bush, too.

"We have been talking about a regime change in Iraq," he said. "Now we are going to have a regime change in the U.S."

Not everyone was sold on Edwards.

James E. Sanderson Jr., president of United Steelworkers of America Local 7898 in Georgetown, listened to Edwards' speech at Bethel AME Church but said he will vote for Dean.

"He is the only candidate that represents change," Sanderson said. "People should be up in arms about jobs leaving the country in record numbers."

Teacher's aide Madeline Richards of Georgetown supports Clark because of his military experience.

Retired factory worker Edith Davis of Florence is undecided, but she said she might throw her support to Sharpton, whom she knew when she lived in New York.

"He's done marvelous things for the black community," she said.

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