McCain, in spite of his reputation as a party maverick, has become the establishment candidate as the race has gone on. He got last-minute endorsements from Crist and Mel Martinez, the state's Cuban-born U.S. senator, and both men campaigned with him in the days leading up to the election.
More than two in five voters said Crist's endorsement was important to their votes, and McCain carried that group by better than a 2-to-1 margin, the exit poll showed. McCain also did well among Cuban-Americans, getting half of their votes.
McCain, 71, who would be the oldest first-term president in history, also benefited from the state's large number of seniors. He won among those 60 and older, who cast 44 percent of the total vote - the largest proportion of voters in that age group this year.
McCain also might have gotten a boost from his victory in South Carolina 10 days earlier and from fading support for Giuliani.
Pre-election polls suggested that moderates were switching from the former New York mayor to McCain as it became increasingly apparent that Giuliani was no longer a viable contender for the nomination.
Giuliani had gambled on a Florida-heavy effort, spending millions of dollars and weeks of campaign time, only to finish much closer to fourth-place Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, who had no money to air commercials. Giuliani told supporters last night that "you don't always win, but you can always try to do it right," expressing pride that he had run a positive campaign.
He picked up only one delegate in the primaries and caucuses, after spending more than $50 million -a new mark for cost-ineffectiveness in presidential politics.
That would obliterate the previous record, set by Republican candidate John B. Connally Jr., who won just one delegate in 1980 after spending $11 million, which is about $30 million in today's dollars. Because Florida's Legislature moved the date of the election ahead of Super Tuesday, the state was punished by both national parties. Republicans stripped away half of Florida's national convention delegates.
The national Democratic Party ruled that no delegates would be awarded as a result of yesterday's vote, and the presidential candidates agreed not to campaign in the state, even though their names were on the ballot.
But Hillary Rodham Clinton, expecting a first-place finish, held a Florida victory celebration anyway in an effort to gain a public-relations advantage.
