A man running for state representative said he had a beer bottle smashed in his face and a metal staple embedded in his forehead Sunday night when he confronted two people putting up his rival’s signs outside his campaign office.

Robert Zwolinski posted graphic photos to Facebook showing a smashed nose and blood dripping down his face from the staple, which can be seen stuck in his forehead at the hairline.

“Politics is a contact sport. Apparently that’s literally the case,” he said on Twitter.

Zwolinski, 30, is running against state Rep. Cynthia Soto (D-Chicago) in the state’s 4th District, which includes the city’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood.

Zwolinski said he and his girlfriend, Megan Dunworth, were driving past the office on their way home when they spotted a man and a woman “lurking” nearby, and Zwolinski got out of the car to intervene.

“I went up to them and said ‘Come on guys, what are you doing? This is my office,'” Zwolinski told DNAinfo Monday. “Then the guy pushes his forearm against me and the woman just starts screaming ‘This isn’t your territory’ or something like that.

“Suddenly she pounces on my back and starts scratching and tearing at me, and before I know it all three of us are on the ground,” Zwolinski said. “This girl is insane…I’ve never seen so much craziness in a person. She needs to be found and taken off the streets.”