Residents in the southeastern state of Florida are voting Tuesday in a key primary for U.S. Republican presidential hopefuls.
Public opinion polls indicate a tight race between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Arizona Senator John McCain. Florida is considered a critical test ahead of February 5 - "Super Tuesday" - when more than 20 states hold primaries or caucuses for Republicans and Democrats.
Trailing behind in the Republican race are former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has focused most of his attention on Florida, and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who won the Iowa caucus on January 3.
Among the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Illinois Senator Barack Obama won the endorsement Monday of Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy of the prominent political family that included the late President John F. Kennedy.
Obama was also endorsed Monday by Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, who had several years ago wrote that then-President Bill Clinton was the nation's first "black" president.
Obama won the South Carolina Democratic primary Saturday, with New York Senator Hillary Clinton finishing a distant second. Florida also holds a Democratic primary Tuesday, but because the state scheduled its primary so early this year, national leaders of the Democratic Party have stripped Florida of its voting rights at the Democrats' nominating convention in August.
