As of July, former President Donald Trump was the leading recipient of 2023 Hamilton County campaign contributions for the Republican presidential campaign, at about $39,000, with entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy in second at about $16,500.
But year-end campaign donation totals reviewed by the Chattanooga Times Free Press show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as Hamilton County’s new top recipient. Hamilton County donations to the DeSantis campaign totaled more than $93,000 for the year, with Trump’s 2023 total at about $56,000.
“A lot of people would like to see him as our nominee instead of President Trump, but again, a lot of people are not willing to say that publicly,” former U.S. House Rep. Zach Wamp said by phone.
Wamp attended DeSantis’ private fundraising event in Chattanooga in July and donated $2,500 to his campaign. On the way to that event, DeSantis’ motorcade was involved in a car crash that made national news.
Wamp said the accident was mentioned casually during the Q&A portion of the event and did not appear to rattle DeSantis. The only sign of the fender bender was spilled coffee on the governor’s jacket, Wamp recalled.
Wamp said DeSantis arrived a few minutes late to the event, but not late enough for anyone to think something had happened. After his speech, DeSantis allowed questions from attendees. An event attendee told the governor he hoped a second visit to Chattanooga would bring better luck, alluding to the crash, which is how the rest of the attendees found out about the incident.
“Things are not always going to go perfectly, you know, you might have coffee spilled all over your clothes because somebody rear-ends you in a motorcade, and you just got to keep going,” Wamp said, “and that’s literally the kind of guy that I feel like we have in Ron DeSantis.”
Wamp’s successor, U.S. Rep Chuck Fleischmann, is a Trump supporter and told the Pachyderm Club in Hamilton County in November that he pledged his support to Trump at Mar-A-Lago.
“And I told him that I was going to be doing everything possible to make sure that he gets reelected,” Fleischmann said. “I know everyone in the room might not be where I am, but I’m going to tell you, I’m all in for Donald Trump. He’s going to be our nominee.”
Vivek Ramaswamy received the third-most campaign donations at about $32,600. Candidate Nikki Haley is far behind the top three in Chattanooga-area donations at nearly $8,200 total in 2023, raising 72% of her total donations from the end of July to September.
Republican candidate Asa Hutchinson received about $1,000 from Hamilton County campaign donors in 2023.
(READ MORE: Feeling caucus confusion? Your guide to how Iowa works)
The Iowa caucuses, which kick off the presidential nominee selection process, will be held Monday.
Contact Sarah Dolgin at sdolgin@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6556.