Would John Edwards Help Barack Obama Carry The Tri-Cities Region In November?

By George Jackson
Producer / News Channel 11
Published: May 15, 2008

Hillary Clinton has not dropped out of the democratic presidential primary, but Barack Obama won a major endorsement from John Edwards Wednesday. Is Edwards on Obama’s short-list for vice-presidential candidates? Would he help the senator from Illinois with his “Appalachian problem?” Click on this headline to post your comments.

John Edwards, a South Carolina native and U.S. Senator from North Carolina, endorsed Barack Obama for president Wednesday.  Edwards received a thunderous ovation from the crowd gathered in Grand Rapids, Mich.  He praised Sen. Hillary Clinton and called on Obama to make the fight against poverty one of the central issues of his campaign.

Click on the first link (left) to view an article on Wednesday night’s endorsement from the Associated Press.

This endorsement raises two major questions:

1.  Will Obama name Edwards as a running mate? 

2.  If named, could Edwards help him win over white, working-class voters in areas like the Tri-Cities Region? 

According to a recent article printed in the Seattle Times, Barack Obama has an “Appalachian problem.” Exit polls show Obama won 60 percent of the white vote in Vermont, the second-whitest state in the United States.  But, on Tuesday, Hillary Clinton crushed Obama in West Virginia, the third-whitest state in the country.  Exit polls show Clinton carried 67 percent of the white vote.

Click on the second link (left) to view the full article by Seattle Times’ reporter Jonathan Tilove.

Edwards dropped out of the democratic presidential race in January—before scheduled primary contests in the Tri-Cities Region.  Tennessee voted on February 5th.  Virginia voted on February 12th.

Hillary Clinton carried the democratic primary in Tennessee with 53.82 percent of the vote.  Obama finished second with 40.48 percent.  Edwards, despite dropping out the month before, came in third with 4.45 percent.  Obama won Virginia’s democratic primary, but Clinton won the Southwest region by a large margin.

Click on the third and fourth links (left) for a county by county breakdown of the vote in Tennessee and Virginia.

According to the First Tennessee Development District, the Tri-cities Region had a total population of 493,796 in 2006, and 96.7-percent of that population was white.

Click on the fifth link (left) for more statistics on the Tri-cities Region.