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Article published Dec 28, 2003
N.C. senator files for primary in S.C.
Associated Press
COLUMBIA -- U.S. Sen. John Edwards focused
on Democrats regaining the White House in a speech to supporters outside state
Democratic headquarters on Saturday.Edwards was in town to file the official
paperwork to get on the ballot for the state's first-in-the-South Democratic
presidential primary Feb. 3.Among supporters for the North Carolina senator
Saturday were two members of the rock band, "Hootie and the Blowfish."The band,
formed in Columbia in the 1980s, has endorsed Edwards for president. Edwards
also is a native of South Carolina.Drummer Jim Sonefeld said the band had met
Edwards years earlier and found several common beliefs."It's been very easy to
stand up and support him," Sonefeld said.Edwards said Democrats have led the
country during difficult times leading to the creation of Social Security and
expanded voting and civil rights."It is time for Democrats to lead that way
again," Edwards said. "We're the party that believes in lifting people up, not
looking down on them."Edwards told the small crowd that South Carolina's early
primary puts his home state in the spotlight."This state is going to play an
enormous role in deciding who the next president of the United States is going
to be," Edwards said. "Whoever walks off the stage on the night of Feb. 3 --
having won the South Carolina primary -- will be a finalist for the Democratic
nomination."Edwards spent the morning campaigning in the Lowcountry. He wasn't
the only Democratic presidential hopeful in South Carolina on Saturday.Former
Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun spent the morning at the State Museum in
Columbia, where she greeted people at the new children's museum and at a Kwanzaa
celebration. She went to the Florence for a town hall meeting and a voter
registration drive in the afternoon.