Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and his campaign crew were involved in a car crash in Tennessee on Tuesday.
According to the Chattanooga Police Department, the crash occurred on Interstate 75 south around 8:15 a.m. following the pile-up that resulted from the front car in DeSantis’ four-car motorcade abruptly slowing down to avoid traffic in front of them.
“We appreciate the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail,” Press Secretary Bryan Griffin told Fox News in a statement. “We appreciate the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail.”
Griffin also said that an investigation is still ongoing after a female staff member received minor injuries but later received treatment at a campaign event.
Traffic camera footage from the Tennessee Department of Transportation Smartway Cameras shows police and other first responders could be seen at the scene of the event.
This comes as DeSantis is continuing to campaign for himself as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate in 2024. During an interview on Fox News recently, DeSantis dismissed early mediocre poll numbers and criticized President Joe Biden’s “Bidenomics” initiative.
“Bidenomics in a nutshell, is: ‘You pay more for the necessities of life. Your standard of living goes down, the government gets bigger and more powerful. And ultimately China will benefit from a lot of stuff,” the Florida governor said at the time.
“The reason why Florida’s done good leading and net in-migration, and leading in new business formation is our unemployment rate’s way lower than the national average is because we’ve rejected Bidenomics. We govern conservatively. We don’t spend our state into oblivion,” he continued.
DeSantis said that early polling numbers do not bother him, as the first primary contests are still months away.
“[O]f any Republican in the country, I have the best record of defeating the left. On issue after issue, and we’ll be making that case over the next six or seven months. I’m running to win in January and February. I’m not running to juice polling now,” the presidential hopeful added.
