On Saturday afternoon, a man driving a brown van rammed into a tent holding GOP volunteers registering people to vote. He then left the scene while making an obscene gesture.

At approximately 2:45 p.m. a multi-colored brown and gold van driven by what is described as a white male in his 20s or 30s, accelerated into a crowd of volunteers at the Kernan Village shopping center located at 11900 Atlantic Boulevard.

— Duval County GOP (@DuvalGOP) February 8, 2020

“We are outraged by this senseless act of violence toward our great volunteers,” said Duval GOP Chairman Dean Black. “The Republican Party of Duval County will not be intimidated by these cowards and we will not be silenced.”

— Duval County GOP (@DuvalGOP) February 8, 2020

Police are still looking for the vehicle and its driver at this point.

It appears the man ran into one of the tent posts, knocked the tent over, and the volunteers scattered, leading to no one being hurt. Whether he had a motive to actually hit someone or not isn’t really clear. It’s possible he just wanted to damage the tent to send a message, but that hardly excuses his behavior and reports are that authorities are treating it as an aggravated assault. Given the gesture made and the nature of those targeted, it’s pretty clear this wasn’t an accident and that it was done because these were GOP volunteers.

The local Democratic party representative did give a statement.

Daniel Henry, the President of the Duval County Democratic Party, released a statement saying he condemns the attack: “The Duval County Democratic Party condemns this cowardly act of violence. No one’s life should be placed in danger for exercising their first amendment rights. As Democrats, but more importantly, as residents of this great city of Jacksonville, we call on our fellow citizens to act with dignity, civility and respect for one another during this election cycle and beyond. We look forward to JSO’s arrest of the perpetrator.”

This will likely receive zero mainstream media attention because of who was targeted.