FACTBOX: Profiles of presidential hopefuls

(Reuters) - Leading contenders in the race for U.S. president now head into Super Tuesday on February 5 when nearly half of the states will pick Republican and Democratic candidates for the November election.

Following are brief profiles of the main contenders:

DEMOCRATS:

HILLARY CLINTON, 60, lost to rival Barack Obama in South Carolina, a state she wanted to win to secure the position of front-runner. Clinton, a senator from New York, would be the first female U.S. president if elected. A former first lady, she has emphasized efforts to insure 47 million Americans without health coverage and 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.

JOHN EDWARDS, 54, who was focused on winning in South Carolina, finished third, a setback in the state where he was born and which he won in his unsuccessful 2004 presidential bid. The former senator from North Carolina and the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2004, hasn't a won a contest in this year's race for the Democratic nomination. He has made combating poverty a major campaign theme and called his vote to authorize military action in Iraq a mistake. Edwards now urges withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. He edged out Clinton for second place in Iowa but came in third in New Hampshire and trails Obama and Clinton in national polls. His wife, Elizabeth, is being treated for a recurrence of cancer.

BARACK OBAMA, 46, won the South Carolina contest on Saturday, regaining momentum ahead of the February 5 coast-to-coast competition. After two consecutive losses in New Hampshire and Nevada, he badly needed a win to have a realistic chance of victory. Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black U.S. president, won the opening contest in Iowa. He gave the keynote address at the 2004 Democratic convention before he was elected to the Senate. He has opposed the Iraq war from the beginning and tried to cast himself as a Washington outsider. He scored a surprise victory in Iowa and came in second to Clinton in New Hampshire.

REPUBLICANS:

RUDY GIULIANI, 63, was once the party's front-runner but is fighting for his political life in Florida. The former New York mayor, who has made his leadership during the September 11 attacks a centerpiece of his candidacy, did not campaign heavily in the states holding the early contests. He focused instead on larger states that vote later, particularly Florida, which holds its primary on Tuesday. Widely shunned by many conservatives because of his support for abortion rights, gun control and gay rights, he received the endorsement of Christian evangelist Pat Robertson.

MIKE HUCKABEE, 52, has faded since his surprise win in Iowa and is trailing in Florida polls. A Baptist minister who hoped to win support from South Carolina's large group of evangelical Christians, Huckabee lost narrowly to McCain. The bass guitar-playing former Arkansas governor, who was born in Hope, Arkansas -- the birthplace of Bill Clinton -- 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. Known for his wit, he has been criticized for a lack of knowledge on foreign policy.

JOHN MCCAIN, 71, is battling Mitt Romney for the lead in Florida, after gaining momentum from his narrow win in South Carolina -- a state where McCain's presidential hopes were destroyed in a bitter 2000 battle that set George W. Bush on a path to the White House. The senator from Arizona 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. He would be the oldest first-term president, at 72, if elected. He has been a pro-business conservative and abortion foe while supporting the Iraq war and calling for additional troops to quell the violence. His campaign was running low on cash and hit by a wave of defections this summer but he rebounded with a big win in New Hampshire.

MITT ROMNEY, 60, is engaged in a fierce fight with McCain for Tuesday's Florida primary. The former Massachusetts governor picked up a win in Nevada after a breakthrough victory in Michigan. He finished second in both Iowa and New Hampshire. The Harvard-educated former business executive co-founded the private equity firm Bain Capital. He 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 and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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