Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was involved in a multi-car accident on Tuesday in Tennessee but was uninjured as he traveled in a motorcade to a campaign stop for his 2024 presidential bid.
The crash apparently happened before 8:15 a.m. when traffic slowed on Interstate 75 in Chattanooga. The leading driver in the four-car motorcade braked too abruptly, and it caused a chain-reaction crash, according to police. All the vehicles involved in the crash were government vehicles taking DeSantis and his team to his scheduled event, police said.
DeSantis continued on to the campaign event. The Republican White House hopeful was not hurt according to Chattanooga police, Florida law enforcement, and DeSantis campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin.
“They were shaken up, it all happened very quickly,” one insider told the New York Post. “It was an abrupt stop and they just ran into each other because there wasn’t enough time to brake. Not full speed though, so thank God nothing more serious. On we go.”
The governor’s staff and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s agents, who are required by Florida law to provide security for the governor and his immediate family, “all have been cleared with no significant injuries,” department spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger said, adding that a state officer was driving DeSantis at the time.
A female staff member suffered a minor injury in the crash, but she was treated at the event, according to police.
Representatives for DeSantis’ campaign did not offer more details about the accident. A spokesperson for the Florida governor’s office deferred questions about the accident to the campaign.
DeSantis was scheduled to hold events throughout central and eastern Tennessee as he prioritizes Super Tuesday states in his campaigning. Super Tuesday, held on March 5 next year, is when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs of any day in the primary cycle.
Earlier this month, DeSantis addressed more than 1,800 attendees at a state GOP dinner in Nashville.
The Florida governor, who has trailed front-runner Donald Trump in the GOP presidential contest, was expected to be at a fundraiser at a private home in Chattanooga on Tuesday. Hosts for the fundraiser were to pay $10,000 per couple for the event, while co-hosts were paying $5,000 and other attendees were paying $2,000 each, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
DeSantis was expected to attend additional fundraisers on Tuesday in Knoxville and Franklin.
Take a look —
NEW: FL Gov. Ron DeSantis was involved in a crash while heading to a presidential campaign event in Chattanooga. It happened around 8:15am on I-75SB You can see the scene in the TDOT video below.
(@Local3News) pic.twitter.com/8a5AlN65IA— Heather (@HeatherProduces) July 25, 2023
DeSantis has historically been popular with donors, but the Republican candidate has been attending a string of fundraisers lately as his campaign has faced some surprising financial pressures. He was in Utah over the weekend holding fundraisers and in New York last week for an event in the Hamptons.
DeSantis’ team has raised a stunning $150 million for his presidential ambitions so far, but the vast majority, $130 million, has gone to a super PAC run by allies who cannot legally coordinate with the campaign.
Plus, the campaign has been spending lavishly. DeSantis campaign itself raised more than $20 million in the first six weeks he was in the race, though recently released federal filings revealed that he and his team had burned through more than $8 million in a spending spree that included more than 100 paid staffers, a large security detail and luxury travel.
Just two months after entering the race, DeSantis already has been cutting staff while facing new questions about his aggressive spending. The governor’s campaign cut 38 staffers — more than a third of its staff — on Thursday. The campaign intends to reset, according to Politico‘s reporting from the meeting in Utah.
Generra Peck, the DeSantis campaign manager, reportedly said that the campaign would start relying less on paid staffers and more on the governor’s appearances to media.
“The DeSantis campaign is recalibrating. It’s clear it needs to,” Republican strategist Terry Sullivan told the Associated Press. “But at the end of the day, they’re still better positioned than any other challenger to Donald Trump, times 10.”
DeSantis’ team has quietly expressed confidence for months that voters would eventually tire of Trump’s escalating legal troubles and personal scandals.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.