Republican candidates who have officially declared that they are running for president in the 2012 election are Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, Jon Huntsman, Gary E. Johnson, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Buddy Roemer, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum.

The race is getting serious as the Florida primary approaches.

A recent article published by the Associated Press has declared Florida’s GOP presidential primary to be a “winner-take-all contest,” because the Republican National Committee has agreed to a plan to award 50 delegates to the Republican presidential candidate that comes in first during the primary on January 31.

The latest national poll from the New York Times and CBS shows that Herman Cain leads the Republicans with support from 25 percent of GOP voters with Mitt Romney close behind at 21 percent. No other candidate, however, has half the support of Cain or Romney with Newt Gingrich polling at 10 percent and Ron Paul receiving support from 8 percent of those surveyed.

Surprisingly, Rick Perry only has 6 percent of support from the Republicans surveyed, a huge decline from the 23 percent he had in the Times/CBS September poll. Another surprise is that Bachmann drew support from only 2 percent of those surveyed.

As Cain and Romney work to pull ahead, and other candidates struggle to regain a grip in the race, Republicans are anxious to see what will happen in January at the Florida primary.

“Clearly we are going to be an important contest, even more important than we initially thought,” said Brian Hughes, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Florida.