Democratic presidential candidate and former senator John Edwards, an N.C. State alumnus, dropped out of the presidential race Wednesday afternoon.
Representatives from his headquarters in Chapel Hill declined to comment.
According to Steven Greene, associate political science professor, even though Edwards lost the race, he began putting forth a health care policy before everyone else and it influenced and shook up the debates.
“If he was competing against the same field from 2004, he might have been a front-runner,” Greene said.
Greene said this race was just a difficult one for Edwards.
“I don’t know so much that he wasn’t able to catch on as much as [the other candidates] caught on more,” Greene said.
Drew Ball, an alumnus and former College Democrats president, worked on Edwards campaign as a volunteer.
According to Ball, Edwards didn’t drop out because of money issues or because of his wife’s cancer.
“He thought it was time for him to step aside and let history take its course,” Ball said.
Although Edwards did not make an immediate endorsement to any candidate, Ball said the Democrats still have a chance to make history with a black president or a woman president.
“Edwards won’t give his immediate endorsement to Clinton or Obama, if he gives an endorsement at all,” Ball said. “It’s highly unlikely he’ll make an endorsement before February 5th. Now that John Edwards is out of the race, my support rests with Barack Obama.”
Greene agreed that the votes would be scattered among Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama now that Edwards is out.
“Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are unusual in a good way,” he said.
According to Ball, he still cares about the issues Edwards pushed for.
“Once an activist, always an activist,” he said.
The issues the party needs to be unified in, according to Ball, are health care, the war in Iraq and making sure the government helps the people and not special interest groups.
“We look forward to supporting a party that will keep those issues in mind, and we will be a unified party in November,” Ball said of himself and other youth activists.
