North Carolinians will not get a chance to vote for John Edwards.
State Democratic chairman Jerry Meek excluded the name of Edwards from a list of candidates he submitted Tuesday to the State Board of Elections for the May 6 primary. Democrats included on the ballot are Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. Mike Gravel, Rob Christensen reports.
Meek, who has discretion on who to include on the ballot, said Monday he would decide whether to include Edwards’ name after conferring with the Edwards campaign.
Edwards, an Orange County resident, suspended his campaign for president last week, after losing the first four contests. Some of his supporters, however, have been urging his backers to vote for Edwards anyway in the remaining primaries.
The absence of Edwards name is another indication that Edwards has given up his campaign. It may also suggest that Edwards did not want to be embarrassed in his home state, which carried in a caucus in 2004.
Joe Trippi, who is Edwards key strategist, said Edwards contemplated dropping out of the presidential race before South Carolina primary, to avoid another embarrassing defeat like he suffered in Nevada, when he won only 4 percent, according to The New Republic magazine.
But Edwards decided to stay in after doing well in the Myrtle Beach debate. Edwards won 18 percent in South Carolina, finishing third.
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