Third Democrat poised to join race to take on Bush

Senator John Edwards of North Carolina is expected today to declare his candidacy for the White House, joining an increasingly numerous Democratic field to challenge President George Bush in 2004.

After a meeting with friends and backers on New Year's Day at his North Carolina home, Mr Edwards will today confirm what has been likely for months – that he is setting up an exploratory campaign committee for a presidential run. With this step, the 49-year-old first-term senator will embark on the all-important "silent primary" of building a national political organisation, and raising the $20m (£12m) or more necessary to contest the real primary season, crammed into just two months between mid-January and mid-March 2004.

Mr Edwards becomes the third Democrat to enter the race, after Governor Howard Dean of Vermont and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts. Mr Kerry announced his own exploratory committee last month, shortly before Al Gore, defeated by Mr Bush in 2000, decided not to run again.

Others are likely to follow, including Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, Mr Gore's vice-presidential running mate three years ago, the former House minority leader Richard Gephardt, and the Senate minority leader, Tom Daschle of South Dakota. Possible additional contenders are Bob Graham, the experienced Florida Senator, and the retired general Wesley Clark, Nato's supreme commander during the 1999 Kosovo war. General Clark has not formally confirmed he will be a candidate, but he is acting like one – contacting potential backers, visiting key primary states, and making weighty speeches.

Mr Edwards is making only a scant impression, scoring about 5 per cent in polls of Democratic voters, well behind Senators Kerry and Lieberman. But at this stage, the figures reflect little more than name recognition.

Mr Edwards' handicap is a lack of experience. He brings some advantages with him: access to campaign money, thanks to his background as a trial lawyer, a youthful and appealing television presence, as well as a political base in the south, where Mr Bush swept the board in 2000. Some compare him to the Bill Clinton who emerged from the southern state of Arkansas.

But there is one big difference. Like most of the rest of the potential Democratic field, Mr Edwards is a Washington politician. Mr Clinton was a governor, and four of the most recent presidents have been governors. The last senator to win the White House was John F Kennedy in 1960.