Dean bows out of US presidential campaign

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has withdrawn from the Democratic Party race to take on George W Bush for the White House, leaving senators John Kerry and John Edwards as the two main contenders in the contest.

Mr Kerry will fight Mr Edwards on one front and Mr Bush on another, advertising in general election battleground states while counting on arcane Democratic Party rules to protect his lead in nomination delegates.

“Every race is going to be contested. Every race,” Mr Kerry said yesterday in Ohio, the focal point of his plans to beat Mr Edwards in March and Mr Bush in November. “We’re fighting for every vote.”

In the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday, Mr Kerry failed to push Mr Edwards – his chief rival – from the race. He settled for the departure of Mr Dean who quit yesterday after failing to win a single contest.

Mr Kerry is the winner in 15 of 17 contests and still the undisputed front-runner.

Mr Dean, who finished a distant third in Wisconsin, announced that he would no longer actively pursue the presidency, but “we will, however, continue to build a new organisation using our enormous grass-roots network to continue the effort to transform the Democratic Party and to change our country”.

The Democratic race with the remaining candidates makes pit stops next week in Hawaii, Idaho and Utah before turning to March 2 and the motherlode of 1,151 delegates, more than half the total needed to claim the party’s nomination.

Democratic delegates choose a presidential candidate at a convention of all 50 states and Washington, DC, this summer to challenge Mr Bush in the November election.

Mr Edwards put in a stronger-than-expected second place showing in Wisconsin, due in part to a strong performance in a debate on Sunday and his criticism of Mr Kerry’s free-trade policies.