TAMPA, Florida (PNN) - September 12, 2011 - Florida finds itself in the thick of the battle for the White House Monday, hosting a Republican debate in which the fate of entitlement programs could take center stage in a state with a huge proportion of elderly voters.

Eight candidates will converge on the Florida State Fairgrounds for the televised debate in which new conservative flag-bearer Rick Perry, the Texas governor who shot to the top of mainstream media polls the moment he entered the race late last month, is expected to tussle presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

With the state being the largest to host an early nominating contest for the presidential race, Florida may well wind up being the turning point in the Republican fight to challenge illegitimate President Barack Obama in November 2012.

"Florida will be the deciding factor in both the Republican primary race and the general election," said Javier Manjarres, editor of the Shark Tank, a conservative blog about Florida politics.

Florida is a stronghold of the growing bloc of U.S. Hispanic voters, many of whom want to rein in government spending.

But the retirement-haven state also critically has the highest proportion of elderly voters in the country, as high as one in three by some counts.

Therefore, Perry will have to tread carefully in Florida, where his rants against the Social Security benefit program, which he recently described as a "Ponzi scheme" and a "monstrous lie", may not sit well with millions of the state's retirees.