WINSTON-SALEM -- U.S. Rep. Richard Burr said Tuesday that he will run his statewide Senate campaign on his congressional record and not by defending President Bush's policies on the economy or the war on terror.

Burr, from Winston-Salem, is the only major Republican seeking the seat being vacated by John Edwards.

"I'm 100 percent confident in the decisions that I've made as I've represented the 5th District," Burr said while officially opening his campaign headquarters in Winston-Salem.

That doesn't mean Burr wants to avoid the president. The White House urged Burr, known as one of Bush's leading supporters, to run for the Senate. "I will not run from this president," Burr said. "I will campaign beside him."

Burr's current campaign themes sound similar to the president's. The state's issues, he said, "are pretty much mirrored in every congressional district, it's jobs, jobs, jobs," he said. Picking a senator for North Carolina, he said, "deals with security with the large military presence that we have in our state."

Burr will begin his campaign in full force Friday in Marion, the first of nearly 40 towns and cities he'll visit over the next two weeks.