John Sarbanes: “In 1998, John Edwards was elected to the U.S. Senate from his home State of North Carolina to fill the seat once held by…”

“In 1998, John Edwards was elected to the U.S. Senate from his home State of North Carolina to fill the seat once held by Senator Sam Ervin. He had never before run for, or served in, public office. From the time he received his law degree in 1977 until he entered the Senate, he was an attorney in private practice. For two decades John represented in court North Carolinians who had been grievously injured or disabled and had no one to speak up for them. He quickly made the transition from the courtroom to the Senate Chamber, however, because in both he has been guided by the same unwavering principle: putting to work his formidable talents and energy, along with his training, on behalf of 'the people I grew up with.' John Edwards grew up in Robbins, NC. Robbins was a mill town. John's father spent nearly four decades working in textile mills; his mother worked in a number of jobs as well. As David Broder once put it, his parents and their friends and coworkers were people who 'earn their bread by the sweat of their brow.' John was the first person in his family to go to college.”