Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Friday he's the candidate who could get Utahns to reject the Republican choice for the White House for the first time in four decades.

"It's a tough uphill slog," Edwards told reporters before heading to an early-evening fund-raising event at The Depot, a private club in The Gateway where he was expected to raise more than $100,000 from some 200 supporters.

But, Edwards said, it's not impossible. "I think it depends on who the candidate is. I think if their message is my message and they come from the kind of background and family and belief system that I come from, yeah, I think we can compete here."

The last time Utahns voted for a Democrat in a presidential election was for Lyndon Johnson in 1964. In the past two elections, the solidly GOP state gave President Bush his largest majority of votes.

Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina and his party's vice-presidential pick in 2004, faces tough competition to get in the general election from Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

With Nevada holding its Democratic caucus on Jan. 19, just five days after Iowa voters kick off the presidential primary season, the West is shaping up as a key to winning the nomination.

Utah moved its presidential primary election to Feb. 5, along with more than 20 other states.

While Nevada "is going to play a huge role," Edwards said Utah will also be important. "We will have largely chosen the Democratic nominee for president by Feb. 5, and the voters in Utah are going to have a voice in it," he said.

He described the West as a part of the country with "an extraordinary independence and a pride in that independence," where people are raised as he was, "to believe we have to take care of ourselves.... That's at the heart and soul of what the people in the West believe."

Edwards, who was to spend less than three hours in Utah before heading on to Nevada, acknowledged that Utah "has been a tough place for Democratic candidates in the past. But it's obvious, it's the reason I'm here, that I have some good support here."

Edwards is the first Democratic candidate for 2008 to come to Utah, although the three top Republican candidates — former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani — have all raised cash here.

The price to attend the private fund-raising event for Edwards was $500 a person, although some participants reportedly contributed as much as the maximum contribution allowed under federal law, $2,300.

"We don't get a chance to donate to Democratic candidates, we never get a chance to see them," said Stacy Holcomb. "It's a good opportunity for me. I would come if it was Hillary or Barack."