Lowe, Lakeys join Edwards on trail

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 10:12:00 -0500

OMAHA, Neb.—The unlikely symbol of John Edwards presidential campaign has become a retired Virginia coal miner who until recently couldn't speak.

In speeches and in TV ads, Edwards highlights the story of how James Lowe, who was born with a cleft palate, could not speak until he was aged 50, when some doctors volunteered to fix his ailment, Rob Christensen reports.

Edwards expresses anger that in America someone could live for a half century with a fixable problem because he had no health insurance.

Edwards met Lowe in Wise, Virginia, last summer at the end of a poverty tour.

Lowe will join Edwards on the campaign trail this afternoon in Iowa for three days of campaigning with Edwards starting in nearby Council Bluffs.

He will be joined on Friday by members of the family of Valerie Lakey, a Cary girl who was seriously injured in a swimming pool accident. Edwards won a famous $25 million settlement against the pool manufacturer for not providing proper pool drain covers.

Sandy and David Lakey will join their daughter Valerie on the campaign trail.

The presence of Lowe, Lakey and others is designed to show how Edwards would be a voice for those who now have no voice in Washington.