Sen. John Reid Edwards
Former Senator for North Carolina
Edwards was a senator from North Carolina and was a Democrat. He served from 1999 to 2004.
![Photo of Sen. John Reid Edwards [D-NC, 1999-2004]](/static/legislator-photos/300039-200px.jpeg)
Analysis
Ideology–Leadership Chart
Edwards is shown as a purple triangle ▲ in our ideology-leadership chart below. Each dot was a member of the Senate in 2004 positioned according to our ideology score (left to right) and our leadership score (leaders are toward the top).
The chart is based on the bills Edwards sponsored and cosponsored from Jan 6, 1999 to Dec 8, 2004. See full analysis methodology.
Enacted Legislation
Edwards was the primary sponsor of 2 bills that were enacted:
- S. 2153 (108th): A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 223 South Main Street in Roxboro, North Carolina, as the “Oscar Scott Woody …
- S. 754 (106th): Terry Sanford Commemoration Act of 1999
Does 2 not sound like a lot? Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law. But there are other legislative activities that we don’t track that are also important, including offering amendments, committee work and oversight of the other branches, and constituent services.
We consider a bill enacted if one of the following is true: a) it is enacted itself, b) it has a companion bill in the other chamber (as identified by Congress) which was enacted, or c) if at least about half of its provisions were incorporated into bills that were enacted (as determined by an automated text analysis, applicable beginning with bills in the 110th Congress).
Bills Sponsored
Issue Areas
Edwards sponsored bills primarily in these issue areas:
Government Operations and Politics (18%) Economics and Public Finance (14%) Crime and Law Enforcement (14%) Commerce (12%) Law (12%) Science, Technology, Communications (11%) Health (10%) Social Welfare (9%)
Recently Introduced Bills
Edwards recently introduced the following legislation:
- S. 3017 (108th): Swain County Settlement Act of 2004
- S. 2445 (108th): Direct to Consumer Prescription Drug Advertising Act of 2004
- S. 2325 (108th): Telehealth Improvement Act of 2004
- S. 2303 (108th): Better Future for American Families Act
- S.J.Res. 31 (108th): A joint resolution to provide for Congressional disapproval of certain regulations issued …
- S.J.Res. 32 (108th): A joint resolution to provide for Congressional disapproval of certain regulations issued …
- S.Res. 307 (108th): A resolution honoring the county of Cumberland, North Carolina, its municipalities and …
View All » | View Cosponsors »
Most legislation has no activity after being introduced.
Voting Record
Missed Votes
From Jan 1999 to Dec 2004, Edwards missed 311 of 1,980 roll call votes, which is 15.7%. This is much worse than the median of 2.0% among the lifetime records of senators serving in Dec 2004. The chart below reports missed votes over time.
We don’t track why legislators miss votes, but it’s often due to medical absenses, major life events, and running for higher office.
Primary Sources
The information on this page is originally sourced from a variety of materials, including:
- unitedstates/congress-legislators, a community project gathering congressional information
- The House and Senate websites, for committee membership and voting records
- Congressional Pictorial Directory for the photo
- GovInfo.gov, for sponsored bills
