John Kerry 9 Super Tuesday wins
This leaves the way clear for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who has swept virtually all the preliminary Democratic nominating contests.
Edwards was the last serious obstacle blocking Kerry from securing their party's nomination to challenge Republican incumbent George W Bush in the November election.
Earlier, Senator Kerry consolidated his claim on the Democrats' nomination when he won nine of the ten Super Tuesday polls, including California, New York and Ohio.
Senator Edwards did not win a single poll, only coming close in Georgia, but ultimately losing out to Kerry.
The Vietnam veteran now has 1,361 of the 2,162 votes he will need for nomination at the party's Convention in Boston next July.
Vermont was won by former Governor Howard Dean, who had already stopped campaigning, but remained on the ballot paper there.
In his victory speech, Senator Kerry said he was ready for an electoral fight with the Republican Party, and restated his campaign promises, from repealing Bush's tax cuts to health coverage and efforts to create new jobs.
Senator Kerry also attacked President Bush's foreign policy, accusing him of an 'inept, reckless, arrogant and ideological foreign policy'.
