Florida Governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks during a news conference near the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas on June 26, 2023.

Suzanne Cordeiro | AFP | Getty Images

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was involved in a car accident Tuesday while traveling to campaign events in Tennessee for his 2024 presidential bid, but was not injured, his campaign said.

The Republican White House hopeful “was involved in a car accident on Tuesday while traveling to an event in Chattanooga, Tenn.,” campaign spokesman Bryan Griffin confirmed to the AP. DeSantis “and his team are not injured,” Griffin said.

DeSantis campaign officials did not respond to questions about who was driving the governor or release details about the crash. DeSantis continued his action, spokesman Andrew Romeo said.

DeSantis was scheduled to hold events throughout Middle and East Tennessee on Tuesday. He fell behind front-runner Donald Trump in the Republican Party’s presidential contest.

DeSantis has focused a lot of attention on Tennessee in his recent campaign. He addressed more than 1,800 attendees at the GOP state dinner in Nashville last week.

Just two months after entering the race, DeSantis is already cutting staff and facing new questions about his aggressive spending, media strategy and apparent willingness to fight any and all enemies except Trump, the one person he must defeat to win the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“The DeSantis campaign is recalibrating. It’s clear that 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 in a better position than any other challenger to Donald Trump, times 10.”

For months, DeSantis’ team quietly expressed confidence that voters would eventually tire of Trump’s escalating legal troubles and personal baggage. But the same strain playing out in America’s legal system just as the GOP primaries heat up leaves little oxygen for his rivals to break through. And Trump’s standing with Republican primary voters appears to be growing stronger with each new legal challenge.

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

DeSantis’ campaign alone raised more than $20 million in the first six weeks he was in the race, though recently released federal records revealed he and his team blew through more than $8 million in spending that included more than 100 paid staffers, a large security detail and luxury travel.

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