--- title: Libertarian Presidential Nominee Jo Jorgensen Bitten by Bat description: Libertarian presidential candidate Jo Jorgensen announced she'd have to skip a rally on Saturday because she'd been bitten by a bat. canonical: https://time.com/5877803/jo-jorgensen-bat-libertarian-candidate/ author: Madeleine Carlisle article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-08-08T20:44:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T09:06:06.021Z article:section: Politics og:title: Libertarian Presidential Candidate Skips Campaign Rally After Saying She Was Bitten by a Bat og:description: Luckily, the presidential candidate doesn't seem particularly traumatized by the bat attack og:url: https://time.com/5877803/jo-jorgensen-bat-libertarian-candidate/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c06e3bdf7b144e9/698a113d4ee2625a8c317cdd/jo-jorgensen-bat.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: jo jorgensen bat og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Libertarian Presidential Candidate Skips Campaign Rally After Saying She Was Bitten by a Bat twitter:description: Luckily, the presidential candidate doesn't seem particularly traumatized by the bat attack twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c06e3bdf7b144e9/698a113d4ee2625a8c317cdd/jo-jorgensen-bat.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Libertarian Presidential Candidate Skips Campaign Rally After Saying She Was Bitten by a Bat > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Aug 8, 2020 8:44 PM UTC  Jo Jorgensen, the 2020 presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, gives her acceptance speech during the 2020 Libertarian National Convention in Orlando on July 10, 2020. Jo Jorgensen, the 2020 presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, gives her acceptance speech during the 2020 Libertarian National Convention in Orlando on July 10, 2020. Paul Hennessy—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images  by [Madeleine Carlisle](https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/)  ## Madeleine Carlisle Aug 8, 2020 8:44 PM UTC 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](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1291889336422719488). “I will be getting a rabies vaccine as a precaution after having been bitten by a bat near the start of this campaign tour!” > [](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1291889337760722944) Jorgensen, a senior lecturer of psychology at Clemson University in South Carolina, [won](https://www.npr.org/2020/05/30/866059206/libertarians-name-2020-candidate-meet-jo-jorgensen) 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. > [](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1291894173809991681) > [](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1291900195219873792) > [](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1291902876680421376) > [](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1291925254953152513) > [](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1292035110695587840) If you’ve been bitten by a bat, the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls and Prevention (CDC) [recommends](https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/bats/contact/index.html#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20bitten%20by,and%20get%20medical%20advice%20immediately.) 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. > [](https://twitter.com/Jorgensen4POTUS/status/1291931708133126147) A CNBC/Change Research [poll](https://9b1b5e59-cb8d-4d7b-8493-111f8aa90329.usrfiles.com/ugd/9b1b5e%5F94a0b32d467742a193ace4e532f353b9.pdf) in July found Jorgensen was polling at 2% in the 2020 presidential contest. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5877803/jo-jorgensen-bat-libertarian-candidate/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5877803/jo-jorgensen-bat-libertarian-candidate/"},"headline":"Libertarian Presidential Candidate Skips Campaign Rally After Saying She Was Bitten by a Bat","datePublished":"2020-08-08T20:44:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T09:06:06.021Z","description":"Luckily, the presidential candidate doesn't seem particularly traumatized by the bat attack","url":"https://time.com/5877803/jo-jorgensen-bat-libertarian-candidate/","keywords":["2020 Election","politics","News Desk"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c06e3bdf7b144e9/698a113d4ee2625a8c317cdd/jo-jorgensen-bat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeleine Carlisle","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeleine-carlisle/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1c06e3bdf7b144e9/698a113d4ee2625a8c317cdd/jo-jorgensen-bat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"jo jorgensen bat","caption":"jo jorgensen bat","creditText":"Paul Hennessy—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2020-election/","name":"2020 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5877803/jo-jorgensen-bat-libertarian-candidate/","name":"Libertarian Presidential Candidate Skips Campaign Rally After Saying She Was Bitten by a Bat"}}]}] ```