FACTBOX: Profiles of presidential hopefuls

(Reuters) - The race for U.S. president narrowed to four main contenders in the run-up to Super Tuesday next week, when nearly half of the states pick Republican and Democratic candidates for the November election.

Following are brief profiles of the main contenders after the withdrawal on Wednesday of Republican Rudy Giuliani, a former New York mayor, and Democrat John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator.

DEMOCRATS:

HILLARY CLINTON, 60, goes into next week's contests with nationwide name recognition as the wife of former President Bill Clinton. Clinton, a senator from New York who would be the first female U.S. president, won Florida's primary election convincingly on Tuesday but gained nothing toward the nomination because the state had no Democratic delegates in play. She lost big to rival Barack Obama in South Carolina, a state she wanted to win to secure the position of front-runner. Clinton emphasizes efforts to insure 47 million Americans without health coverage and has criticized opponents for lack of experience. After a disappointing third-place finish in Iowa, Clinton bounced back to a surprise win in New Hampshire. Her once strong lead in national opinion polls has narrowed.

BARACK OBAMA, 46, is expected to win his share of the Super Tuesday states after regaining momentum with a lopsided victory in the South Carolina contest. The senator from Illinois won an important endorsement on Monday from veteran Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, brother of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and a leading liberal voice in Congress. After two straight losses in New Hampshire and Nevada, Obama badly needed a win in South Carolina to have a realistic chance of victory. Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, was the surprise winner in the opening contest in Iowa and came in second to Clinton in New Hampshire. He gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention before he was elected to the Senate. He opposed the Iraq war from the beginning and portrays himself as a Washington outsider. After the departure of Edwards, Obama sought to cast himself as the best candidate to take on John McCain, the Republican front-runner.

REPUBLICANS:

MIKE HUCKABEE, 52, has faded since his surprise win in Iowa and finished fourth in the Florida voting. A Baptist minister and bass guitar-playing former Arkansas governor, Huckabee hoped to win support from South Carolina's large group of evangelical Christians but lost narrowly to McCain. Huckabee was born in Hope, Arkansas -- the birthplace of former Democratic President Clinton. Huckabee won Iowa thanks to strong support from fellow evangelicals, who admire his religious beliefs and conservative stances on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. After the loss in Florida, he vowed to continue his campaign.

JOHN MCCAIN, 71, won the endorsement of Giuliani when his old friend bowed out of the race. McCain, a senator from Arizona, beat out Mitt Romney in Florida after gaining momentum from his narrow win in South Carolina -- a state where his presidential hopes were destroyed in a bitter 2000 battle that set George W. Bush on a path to the White House. McCain attended the U.S. Naval Academy and was shot down in 1967 over Vietnam, where he spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war. McCain, who turns 72 in August, would be the oldest first-term president. He has been a pro-business conservative and abortion foe, while supporting the Iraq war and calling for extra troops to quell the violence. His campaign was low on cash and hit by a wave of defections last summer but he rebounded with a big win in New Hampshire. It is unclear how much McCain will benefit from the backing of Giuliani, who was shunned by many conservatives over his support for abortion rights, gun control and gay rights.

MITT ROMNEY, 60, finished second to McCain after a fierce fight in Florida. The former Massachusetts governor picked up a win in Nevada after a breakthrough victory in Michigan. He came second in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The Harvard-educated former business executive co-founded the private equity firm Bain Capital and has portrayed himself as more of an economics expert than McCain. Romney has appealed to conservatives with his opposition to gay rights and abortion rights, which he once supported. Romney, whose father was once Michigan governor and an auto executive who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1968, would be the first Mormon president.

(Writing by Deborah Charles, Jeremy Pelofsky, Paul Grant, Andy Sullivan and John O'Callaghan in Washington; editing by Philip Barbara)

(To read more about the U.S. political campaign, visit Reuters "Tales from the Trail: 2008" online at blogs.reuters.com/trail08/)