Florida Republican primary, 2008

Florida Republican primary, 2008

2004 ← January 29, 2008 (2008-01-29) → 2012

Nominee John McCain Mitt Romney Rudy Giuliani Party Republican Republican Republican Home state Arizona Massachusetts New York Popular vote 701,761 604,932 286,089 Percentage 36.00% 31.03% 14.68%

Election results by county. Red denotes counties won by McCain, Dark Red denotes those won by Romney, and Pink denotes those won by Mike Huckabee.

The 2008 Florida Republican primary was held on January 29, 2008, with 57 delegates at stake on a winner-take-all basis. The Republican National Committee removed half of Florida's delegates because the state committee moved its Republican primary before February 5. Arizona Senator John McCain was the winner of the primary. Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the race the next day, due to poor results.

Campaign

Rudy Giuliani campaigned quite heavily in Florida, which he expected to use as his "launch pad" for a "strong showing" on Super Tuesday. He campaigned almost entirely in Florida, and largely ignored South Carolina and other states voting before February 5. Polls taken before the primary showed that John McCain was the slight front runner over Mitt Romney. Giuliani had been campaigning with virtually no opposition; however, following the South Carolina Republican primary, 2008, several candidates flew down to Florida to begin campaigning up to January 29 when the primary occurred.

Pre-primary polls

Main article: Opinion polling for the Republican Party presidential primaries, 2008

As of January 29, RealClearPolitics reported that the average support from polls taken in the days immediately prior to primary day placed McCain slightly in the lead with 30.7%, followed by Romney with 30.1%, Giuliani with 14.7%, Huckabee with 12.9%, and Paul with 3.6%. Fmr. Sen. Fred Thompson and Rep. Duncan Hunter, though already out of the race, still remained on the ballot in the Florida primary.

Results

The Florida Secretary of State has released the official results showing that John McCain is the winner.

Candidate	Votes	Percentage	Counties	Delegates
John McCain	701,761	36%	45	57
Mitt Romney	604,932	31.03%	18	0
Rudy Giuliani	286,089	14.68%	0	0
Mike Huckabee	262,681	13.47%	4	0
Ron Paul	62,887	3.23%	0	0
Fred Thompson*	22,668	1.16%	0	0
Alan Keyes	4,060	0.21%	0	0
Duncan Hunter*	2,847	0.15%	0	0
Tom Tancredo*	1,573	0.08%	0	0
Totals	1,949,498	100%	67	57

* Candidate dropped out of the race prior to primary.

See also

• Florida Democratic primary, 2008
• Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2008

External links

• Election Center 2008:Primary Results for Florida