Edwards also established two nonprofit organizations to develop and run anti-poverty programs, including one that helps poor students in North Carolina pay for college. The groups also helped him maintain ties with campaign lieutenants and donors, several of whom helped run and finance the nonprofits.
Edwards also spent much of the last three years building bridges to organized labor. He campaigned in six states for 2006 ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage, and he traveled to help labor-organizing campaigns for janitors and hotel workers. He won an AFL-CIO award for his contributions to the labor movement.
It remains to be seen, however, whether his heavy bet on labor will pay off in formal endorsements. The AFL-CIO and other big unions often hold off on making endorsements until the likely nominee becomes clear. In 2004, Unite Here, which represents textile and hotel workers, was the only union to back Edwards.
Edwards has also developed a detailed anti-poverty agenda that he hopes will cast him as a candidate of big ideas.
"What I am offering are very clear, bold policy initiatives that I think the country needs," he said. "I don't think small, incremental steps are enough."
Edwards has said he aims to end poverty in America in 30 years, with an interim goal of cutting it by a third in 10 years.
A pillar of his plan is to give low-income families housing vouchers so they can move into better neighborhoods. Similar programs were tried in the 1990s to mixed effect. Research on a Clinton-era program found that the vouchers led to improved health and safety for participating families, but not to increased employment or income levels.
Edwards has also proposed a "work bonds" program to help low-income workers build assets, by matching some of their wages with a tax credit that would be put into savings accounts. He wants to create 1 million jobs for the jobless and to start a college tuition aid program like the one he established in North Carolina.
It is not clear whether Edwards' message is reaching far beyond the political elite and activist core. In a recent poll by the Pew Research Center, Edwards was regarded as the most conservative candidate in the Democratic field. And though Edwards is connecting with labor activists, he does not appear to be catching on among minorities who might seem a natural constituency. A recent Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that most blacks supported Sens. Clinton or Obama. It found negligible support among blacks for Edwards.
