Washington - Arizona Senator John McCain cemented his frontrunner status by capturing Florida's Republican presidential primary Tuesday, edging out Mitt Romney and dealing the apparent final blow to former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani, who skipped the early contests in the state-by-state nominating battle, had staked his campaign coffers and future on winning Florida - a strategy that backfired as other candidates used the momentum from earlier wins to leapfrog him in the polls.
McCain was leading the Florida contest with 36 per cent of the vote, with 80 per cent of precincts reporting.
"Our victory may not have reached landslide proportions, but it was sweet nonetheless," McCain told a boisterous crowd in Orange Park, Florida. "Tonight, my friends, we celebrate, but tomorrow it's back to work. We have a ways to go, but it's getting close."
Former Massachusetts governor Romney was in second place with 31 per cent, and congratulated McCain in a speech to his supporters as he vowed to fight on for the nomination. Giuliani stood at 15 per cent and was battling it out for third place with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee at 13 per cent.
Until the end, Giuliani vowed to win Florida. In his own concession speech, he avoided directly announcing his withdrawal from the campaign but spoke entirely in the past tense.
"The responsibility of leadership doesn't end with a single campaign if you believe in a cause that you continue to fight for, and we will," Giuliani said.
Multiple news sources reported that negotiations were taking place between the camps of Giuliani and McCain - long-time friends - over an endorsement, expected Wednesday.
The Democratic Party has stripped Florida of all its delegates to the party's August presidential nominating convention, after the state defied national leaders and moved its vote too early in the series of state-by-state contests.
Nonetheless, the intra-party vote went forward with Democratic candidates on the ballot, and Senator Hillary Clinton was headed for easy victory with 50 per cent. Her nearest rival, Senator Barack Obama, had 33 per cent.
Clinton claimed a significant win at her own rally in Florida, but with no delegates and no campaigning in the state before Tuesday, there was little at stake.
Florida's primary concludes the early, single-state skirmishes that have characterized the opening of the US presidential primary season. McCain's victory gives him significant momentum going into the decisive, February 5 nationwide primaries in more than 20 states.
For the centre-right Republicans, the winner-take-all Florida primary will deliver an important prize for the first-place candidate: a significant slate of hand-picked delegates to the Republican presidential nominating convention in September. The Republican Party only stripped Florida of half its delegates.
Giuliani had been seen as a strong Republican contender when his campaign began, but a risky strategy of ignoring early states in the nomination battle to focus on Florida appeared to rob him of any momentum heading into Tuesday.
Famed internationally for leading New York's response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and for cleaning up crime in the once-chaotic city, Giuliani struggled to gain traction in the early primary contests, where the major-party nominations are often decided.
The former prosecutor eventually pulled out of campaigning in those small states - Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina - where advisors thought he would have little appeal. Instead, he turned his attention and money to Florida, by far the most populous state to vote so far.
McCain came into Tuesday as the winner in New Hampshire and South Carolina, while Romney had taken the Michigan and Nevada contests and blanketed Florida with television advertisements.
With by far the largest campaign war chest, Romney said he would continue fighting despite the Florida result.
Huckabee, a Southern Baptist preacher, has failed to capitalize on his momentum from winning the first statewide nominating contest in Iowa but said he would remain on the ballot through February 5, when a number of Southern states have their chance to vote.
