MIAMI -- While Michigan is left out in the cold and presidential candidates from both parties swarm South Carolina in search of votes before Saturday's primary, one lone Republican was marching in the hot, humid south Florida sunshine yesterday -- and seeming to enjoy every sweaty minute of it.

It's too early to tell if Rudy Giuliani's go-for-broke strategy in the Florida primary Jan. 29 -- while ignoring Iowa, pulling back in New Hampshire and barely campaigning in South Carolina -- will give him the momentum he needs for Super Tuesday's primaries and beyond.

But the former New York City mayor, who could seem somewhat dour at campaign events in New Hampshire, clearly relished the cheers from tens of thousands of Cuban-Americans at the annual Three Kings Parade in Little Havana yesterday.

Riding in shirtsleeves atop a firetruck along Miami's Calle Ocho -- Spanish for Eighth Street -- Mr. Giuliani was greeted with shrieks from grandmothers, awestruck teenagers, young mothers pushing strollers and the occasional abortion protester along the two-mile route.

That event, along with an address to a Hispanic evangelical mega-church in the Miami suburbs, a meet-and-greet at a cafe in Miami's Coconut Grove and a late-day rally in Pompano Beach -- in mostly Democratic Broward County -- kicked off a three-day bus tour around the state that marks the true start of Mr. Giuliani's grass-roots campaigning in this state, said his campaign chairman, Bill McCollum, who is also Florida's attorney general.

"We're going to be all over Florida," said Mr. McCollum, who noted that up until now most of Mr. Giuliani's appearances in the state -- yesterday was his 43rd day of campaigning here -- involved town hall meetings and fund raising.

"This is the real campaign, from now on, every day until the primary," he said.

While still two weeks out from primary day, the bus trip coincides with the official beginning of early voting, which is permitted in Florida, and comes as absentee votes have begun trickling in -- so far, 122,000 Republicans have requested absentee ballots and about 41,000 have been collected.

Despite statewide news media advertising that began in late December, however, Mr. Giuliani has been lagging in the polls here, and on Friday, the campaign announced that senior staffers would forgo paychecks in January. At an impromptu news conference late yesterday, Mr. Giuliani dismissed the notion that his campaign was struggling financially.

"We're in good shape; we have enough money to get through this," he said, noting that the offer by senior aides was made "out of an excess of generosity."

Asked if he regretted pulling out early in New Hampshire after trailing in the polls, he laughed.

"You can't go back over the past," he said. "This is the strategy we chose, and we believe in it. We believe it's going to work. I think John [McCain] won a very big victory in New Hampshire, and we're going to try to do that in Florida."

Certainly, as virtually the only presidential candidate campaigning here, Mr. Guiliani has had the state pretty much to himself for the past few months, and yesterday's schedule provided a primer for the kinds of voters he'll be seeking -- blue-collar Hispanics, retirees from New York, middle-class white Republicans.

Broward County, to the north of Miami, may favor Democrats 2-to-1 in registration, but it also boasts more Republicans than any other county, and at a rally at his headquarters in Pompano Beach, Mr. Giuliani stressed not just his signature issue of security but fiscal responsibility.

He noted that the tax reduction proposal he unveiled last week was "the biggest and the best," and he promised to do away with the estate tax, which he referred to as a "death tax," and to give voters simplified tax forms "and money in your pocket so you can spend it on things that grow the economy."

In Miami's Hispanic community -- a crucial voting bloc -- his support is particularly strong among older Cuban-Americans. While some younger voters in that demographic may not show the same solidarity with their parents, Nelson Blanco, 31, of Coconut Grove, isn't one of them.

"People feel he really understands Castro," said Mr. Blanco, while acknowledging that pocketbook issues matter too, noting that Mr. Giuliani is the only candidate supporting a national catastrophe fund, something which appeals to hurricane-weary Floridians. "Property taxes are killing us, and after the storms a few years ago, a lot of people are really struggling with rising insurance premiums."

Also, Mr. Giuliani seems intent on courting one particular segment of Hispanics -- evangelicals, who seem to regard him with less suspicion than white conservative Christians in the state. At the King Jesus International Ministry in Kendall, one of the largest Hispanic evangelical churches in the country, Mr. Giuliani stressed vouchers, security issues, national unity and his religious beliefs.

"This is a marathon, not a sprint, and in many ways it is a test of strength and a test of faith," Mr. Giuliani told 7,000 parishioners. "The Bible reminds us, in Joshua 10:25, 'fear not, be strong and be of good courage.' It's the way to face the future."

It was also, perhaps, a reference to the past, and the central reason for his candidacy: his handling of the 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. In fact, Mr. Giuliani's celebrity almost guarantees good crowds wherever he goes, from the parade in Little Havana to Sunday brunchers in Coconut Grove, to elderly men in madras shorts in Pompano Beach.

"I actually think people in Florida tend to forget what he did in 9/ll," said Dotty Vasquez, 52, of Coral Gables. "He did an incredible job then, and he'll lead all 49 states the way he led people in New York. He should go to the White House for that alone."