ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Skip to main content

DeSantis involved in car accident on his way to Tennessee presidential campaign events, no injuries

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, July 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. DeSantis has veterans from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign working on his behalf. The DeSantis campaign is working to identify local party activists who could serve as delegates but also is specifically courting state lawmakers, who are typically active in their local GOP groups. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File) Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Family Leadership Summit, July 14, 2023, in Des Moines, Iowa. DeSantis has veterans from Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign working on his behalf. The DeSantis campaign is working to identify local party activists who could serve as delegates but also is specifically courting state lawmakers, who are typically active in their local GOP groups. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
Share
WASHINGTON -

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 chain reaction crash happened before 8:15 a.m. when traffic slowed on Interstate 75 in Chattanooga, causing four cars in the motorcade to hit one another, police said. All the vehicles involved in the crash were government vehicles taking DeSantis and his team to his scheduled event, police said.

The Republican White House hopeful was not hurt, police and DeSantis campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin said. A female DeSantis staff member suffered a minor injury and was later treated at the campaign event, police said.

Representatives for DeSantis' campaign did not answer questions about who was driving the governor or reveal details about the accident. DeSantis was continuing on to his event, spokesperson Andrew Romeo said. A spokesperson for the Florida governor's office deferred questions about the accident to the campaign.

Florida law says the Florida Department of Law Enforcement must provide security for the governor and his immediate family. It can include uniformed and nonuniformed officers.

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 US$10,000 per couple for the event, while co-hosts were paying US$5,000 and other attendees were paying US$2,000 each, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

DeSantis was expected to attend additional fundraisers on Tuesday in Knoxville and Franklin.

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.

Just two months after entering the race, DeSantis already has been cutting staff while facing new questions about his aggressive spending, his media strategy and his apparent willingness to brawl with any and all foes except for Trump, the one person he must defeat to claim the GOP's 2024 presidential nomination.

 "The DeSantis campaign is recalibrating. It's clear it needs to," said Republican strategist Terry Sullivan, who managed Marco Rubio's 2016 presidential campaign. "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 baggage. But that baggage, playing out in the U.S. legal system just as the GOP primary intensifies, is leaving precious little oxygen for his rivals to break through. And Trump's standing with Republican primary voters seems to be growing stronger with every new legal challenge.

Still, DeSantis' team has raised a stunning US$150 million for his presidential ambitions so far. The vast majority, US$130 million, has gone to a super PAC run by allies who cannot legally coordinate with the campaign.

The DeSantis campaign itself raised more than US$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 US$8 million in a spending spree that included more than 100 paid staffers, a large security detail and luxury travel.

CTVNews.ca ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½

Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.

The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.

BREAKING

BREAKING

The New Brunswick RCMP has issued an alert as officers search for an armed teenager in the Moncton and Shediac areas.

An Ontario man says it is 'unfair' to pay a $1,500 insurance surcharge because his four-year-old SUV is at a higher risk of being stolen.

Local Spotlight

They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.

A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.

Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.

The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.

It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.

A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.

David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.

Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.