Staff Writer

Bobbie and Wallace Edwards returned to Union Wednesday to do their part to help their son win the Democratic presidential nomination.

The couple brought John Edwards' campaign to Heart's Drive-In, shaking hands and touting their son's small town, working-class roots. Those roots extend to Union where the couple said they lived for several months when their son was a year old. The family lived in a low-income apartment while Edwards worked in a Milliken plant and his wife worked part-time at the telephone office.

During that time, Edwards said, he was a member of the local Jaycees. The family left Union when Edwards was transferred to a plant in North Carolina.

Mr. and Mrs. Edwards are both from poor, working-class families and their hard work made it possible for their son to go to college and become an attorney.

“He's never forgotten where he came from,” Mrs. Edwards said. “He saw us struggle all those years just to make ends meet and try to give our children as good a life as we could. So he's just got a real passion and focus for hard-working class people.”

Mrs. Edwards said that while the other candidates have tried to copy their son's commitment to poor, working-class Americans, they don't have that commitment because they've never lived that life.

“The other candidates have picked up on that rhetoric and they talk about it,” she said. “But if you've never wanted for anything really and you haven't lived it it's really hard to feel that focus on it.”

Like his parents, John Edwards, 54, was born in Seneca, but for most of his life has been a resident of North Carolina, which he represented in the U.S. Senate for six years. He ran for president in 2004 but lost the Democratic nomination to John Kerry, who chose him as his running mate.

Though polls place their son behind Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Edwards pointed out that those same polls show he's the only one who can win the November general election.

“All the polls show Clinton and Obama polling higher than him, but every poll they take where they're pitting the Republican nominee - any of the Republicans - against the three of them, John is the only one they think can win,” Mrs. Edwards said. “That's a mighty strong argument for voting for him. What's the point in electing a candidate if they're not going to take back the White House in the fall?”

Beyond his ability to win, the couple said their son will fight for poor, working class Americans. Edwards said that given their history, the people of Union County should especially for vote for his son.

“They've lost jobs just like everybody in South Carolina and North Carolina and throughout the country because most of the jobs that hard-working people have had that are good-paying jobs have gone overseas,” he said. “John plans to do something about that.”

The Democratic party will hold its presidential primary on Jan. 26.