"He's stepping aside," said a Democratic official who spoke on condition of anonymity. A second official said Edwards would drop out of the race on Wednesday from Raleigh, N.C.
The North Carolina senator lost to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in California, Ohio, New York, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Connecticut, Rhode Island and by a narrow margin in Georgia.
Edwards, who called Kerry before speaking with his supporters Tuesday night, praised the Massachusetts senator for his victories in Tuesday's elections.
"I want to congratulate my friend, Sen. John Kerry," Edwards said. Edwards pointed to the similarities between Kerry and himself in their goals to improve the lives of ordinary American citizens.
Edwards also said that both he and Kerry proved pollsters and pundits wrong who said the two would have been out of the race by Super Tuesday.
The first-term senator also pledged to continue to push the issues that have been driving his campaign.
He labeled President Bush "out of touch" saying, "Come November he will be out of the White House, not just out of touch."
Likewise, in a speech Kerry made to supporters Tuesday night he thanked Edwards for the contribution his fight for the nomination has made to the Democratic Party.
"We thank him so much for what he has done in the course of this race," Kerry said.
"There is no question that John Edwards brings a compelling voice to our party, great eloquence in the cause of working men and women all across our nation and great promise for leadership in years to come," Kerry said.
Entering Super Tuesday with 205 delegates to his major rival Kerry's 701, Edwards had been under pressure to win Georgia, and somewhere outside of the south.
"At some point, I've got to start getting more delegates or I'm not going to be the nominee," Edwards said on Monday in Toledo, Ohio.
Despite Edwards' efforts to focus on the dangers of free trade in Ohio, where 250,000 jobs have been lost since President Bush entered the office, Kerry cruised to an easy victory.
Experts had said that Ohio was Edwards' last chance to prove himself as a viable candidate for the presidency. The North Carolina senator and former trial lawyer had targeted Georgia, Ohio and Minnesota to help save his candidacy.
Edwards' only victory was in his home state, South Carolina, four weeks ago. Before Tuesday's elections, he had managed eight second-place finishes, five third-places and six fourth-place finishes.
Edwards, 50, used his modest childhood to convey that he understood the plight of ordinary Americans. He announced his candidacy Sept. 16 in front of the textile mill in Robbins, N.C. where his father had worked and where he had earned money for college sweeping floors and acting as a night watchman, the AP reported.
Edwards did not enter politics until his run as a senator in North Carolina in 1998, after earning millions as a trial lawyer.
-- Compiled from wire reports and other media sources
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March 2, 2004, 11:20pm EST
