And to think he wasn’t even supposed to win the primary over General Westmoreland.
Curious, the Almanac of Am. Politics 1976 edition covering that era, Barone didn’t even mention Westmoreland and had Edwards listed as winning the primary unopposed, which was not so (he spent more time covering the messy Dem primary situation — he did mention that Pug Ravenel had so pissed off the Dem legislature in his run for Governor, they refused to alter the law to allow him to bypass the 5 year required residency to run, which would’ve seen him win).
Of course, had Ravenel won and turned into some wild-eyed moonbat Dem, it’s almost certain a Republican (and not Dick Riley) would’ve won the Governorship in 1978, perhaps Edwards himself — and this time he’d have gotten his two terms. He did try two more times for office, against an almost-76 year young Thurmond in 1978 (losing by 11%) and became the first Democrat (in 1980) to lose the Charleston 1st (by 3%) since the 1800s to Tommy Hartnett. Of course, another Ravenel, a Republican, would win it 6 years later (their relation is unclear to me, perhaps distant cousins, though Pug was apparently of more modest means while the others were not so modest).