Obama beats McCain in Florida

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrat Barack Obama defeated John McCain on Tuesday in U.S. presidential voting in Florida, edging out his Republican rival in a key battleground state that put George W. Bush in the White House in 2000, MSNBC projected.

The victory gave the Illinois senator all 27 electoral votes from the fourth most populous U.S. state. While Florida voted Republican in eight of the 10 previous presidential elections, most opinion polls since late September had given Obama a slight edge.

Florida, along with Pennsylvania and Ohio, has played a critical role in presidential elections for nearly 50 years. No candidate since 1960 has won the presidency without capturing two of the three.