North Carolina ? Democrat John Edwards, the Southern moderate looking to reinvigorate his lagging presidential campaign, formally launched his candidacy Tuesday and promised to be an advocate for working-class Americans.

The North Carolina senator spoke before a now empty textile mill where his father worked for 36 years and he earned money for college mopping beneath the looms. The site was chosen to draw a distinction with President Bush, whose father served as congressman, vice president and president.

“America deserves a president who understands that the people of this country work,” he said. “A president who will stand up for those people –someone who will stop at nothing to create opportunity for all the great people.”