FACTBOX: Democratic U.S. presidential candidates

(Reuters) - Here are some facts about the five candidates remaining in the race for the 2008 U.S. Democratic presidential nomination after three others withdrew over the past week.

HILLARY CLINTON

The second-term senator from New York was the first wife of a U.S. president to be elected to public office. As first lady, Clinton led a White House task force on expanding U.S. health care to cover all Americans but was derailed by conservative opposition in Congress. Clinton, 60, graduated from Yale Law School, where she met her husband, Bill Clinton.

JOHN EDWARDS

Edwards, 54, a former North Carolina senator, was the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004. His decision to continue his White House run after his wife, Elizabeth, was diagnosed with a recurrence of breast cancer, has evoked both criticism and sympathy.

MIKE GRAVEL

During his term in the U.S. Senate from 1969 to 1981, Gravel opposed the Vietnam War. Gravel, 77, was a member of the Alaska house of representatives from 1962 to 1966 and was elected speaker in 1965.

DENNIS KUCINICH

Kucinich is one of the more liberal members of the House of Representatives and an outspoken Iraq war critic. A former Cleveland mayor elected in November to a sixth two-year term in Congress, Kucinich, 61, has consistently voted against funding the Iraq war and led anti-war efforts in Congress.

BARACK OBAMA

Obama, a first-term U.S. senator, gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention before he was elected as senator. Obama, 46, who would be the first black president if elected, has campaigned on promises of change for the country.

(Reporting by Paul Grant and Deborah Charles in Washington; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)