John S. Edwards (Virginia)

John S. Edwards ( born October 6, 1943 in Roanoke, Virginia ) is an American politician (Democratic Party). Since 1996 he has been a senator in the Senate of Virginia, representing the 21th district there.

Life

Edwards attended Patrick Henry High School. After he finished school in 1962, he studied at Princeton University, where he received in 1966 a Bachelor of Arts cum laude. From 1966 to 1967 he attended by a Rockefeller Brothers Theological Fellowship, the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He then studied at the Law School of the University of Virginia and received his Juris Doctor in 1970.

In the early 1970s, Edwards served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the Judge Advocate General's Corps as an officer in the rank of captain. In connection he practiced as a lawyer in Washington, DC and was a volunteer in the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law. In 1976 he returned to Roanoke. In 1980 he was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to the Attorney General of the Western District of Virginia.

His political career began in November 1993 when he was appointed a member of the Roanoke City Council due to a vacant seat. In 1994 he was elected for a four-year term in that capacity. At the same time he became vice mayor of the city. In 1995, Edwards ran for a seat in the Senate of Virginia and was able to remove the Republican incumbent from his position. 1999 and 2003 was his re-election. Edwards represents thus since 1996, as a Senator District 21.

Edwards is married and has three children.