Tuesday's Republican primary captured Florida's importance in deciding the next U.S. president. The Republican candidates all offered different ideas to lead the party and the nation into the 21st century.
What had been a muddled field up until Tuesday was made much clearer as John McCain was pushed to the forefront and is now positioned to sweep the 22 primaries held on Feb. 5, or Super Tuesday.
People from California to New York will base their votes off how Florida decided.
Each candidate for the Republican nomination, whether it be Mitt Romney with his focus on the economy, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain with their spotlights on national security, or even Ron Paul with his focus on reducing the size of government, allowed Florida Republicans to decide what issues were most important and, in turn, which direction they would like to lead the party.
With the decision to move the primary date to Jan. 29, Florida became the most important state for candidates to win, as whoever won would be the best to represent the Republican Party.
With this, the party will be able to end months of inner conflict and, instead, be able to unite behind a single candidate and turn its attention to defeating the Democratic nominee. This will be vital to push our message of lower taxes, less government and a strong national defense to the forefront.
On the other side, the Democratic primary highlighted a lack of ideas. Throughout the primary, it was hard to tell the difference between the Democratic platforms - government-mandated healthcare and retreat from the war on terror - from the popularity contest of who could win the special interest groups.
It wasn't until the last moment, when Hillary Clinton realized that her lead was in trouble, did she decide to break her pledge and do last minute campaigning in Florida. Our great state has been hailed as one of the most representative of the nation as a whole. Despite this, Clinton and Obama only chose to campaign here when it benefited them. The Republican Party has shown itself to be the most adept at pushing new ways to make government more efficient for everyone.
I look forward to November when this difference is highlighted and the Republicans once again retain the White House.
Benjamin Grove is the chairman of the UF College Republicans and a political science senior.
