Elizabeth Edwards said she informed her son Jack about the announcement Wednesday morning.

"You don't tell a 7-year-old any time earlier than absolutely necessary. So I told him this morning what was happening. And he said 'So, Dad's going to be home tomorrow and the day after and the day after,"' she said, laughing. "So there are some people who are very excited about this decision."

The campaign ended as it began 13 months ago — with the candidate pitching in to rebuild lives in a city still ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Edwards embraced New Orleans as a glaring symbol of what he described as a Washington that didn't hear the cries of the downtrodden.

Edwards burst out of the starting gate with a flurry of progressive policy ideas — he was the first to offer a plan for universal health care, the first to call on Congress to pull funding for the war, and he led the charge that lobbyists have too much power in Washington and need to be reigned in.

The ideas were all bold and new for Edwards personally as well, making him a different candidate than the moderate Southerner who ran in 2004 while still in his first Senate term. But the themes were eventually adopted by other Democratic presidential candidates — and even a Republican, Mitt Romney, echoed the call for an end to special interest politics in Washington.

Edwards' last primary was in his home state of South Carolina last week. He finished a poor third, wining only his home county, his victory in the 2004 race a distant memory.

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Associated Press Writers Mike Baker in North Carolina and Mike Glover in Arkansas contributed to this report. Nedra Pickler reported from Denver.