Libertarian Presidential Candidate Skips Campaign Rally After Saying She Was Bitten by a Bat

Here’s one for 2020 bingo: Libertarian presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen announced she’d have to skip a rally on Saturday because she’d been bitten by a bat.

“I will not be able to attend the campaign rally tomorrow morning,” she tweeted Friday. “I will be getting a rabies vaccine as a precaution after having been bitten by a bat near the start of this campaign tour!”

Jorgensen, a senior lecturer of psychology at Clemson University in South Carolina, won the Libertarian Party’s nomination for President in late May. She had been the party’s vice presidential pick with Harry Browne in 1996.

She was set to hold in-person rallies in Mississippi and Louisiana over the weekend, although her campaign asked that attendees wear masks, follow social distancing guidelines and stay home if they’re not feeling well. Despite the bat-related delay, Jorgensen said she’d still attend her campaign events in Hattiesburg, Miss., Saturday afternoon.

Luckily, the presidential candidate doesn’t seem particularly traumatized by the bat attack. Her tweet soon went viral and she jokingly leaned into her new status as the new Dark Knight.

“I’m not Batman,” she replied. Yet, when another user pointed out that’s exactly what Batman would say, Jorgensen suggested that she is, in fact, the caped crusader.

If you’ve been bitten by a bat, the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention (CDC) recommends you “wash the affected area thoroughly with soap and water and get medical advice immediately,” as bats can carry rabies.

As she signed off Friday night, Jorgensen told her followers she’d returned to tweeting about her campaign the following day. But she made clear there’s no bad blood between her and the nocturnal mammal.

A CNBC/Change Research poll in July found Jorgensen was polling at 2% in the 2020 presidential contest.