James Talarico returned to the campaign trail after missing several days while recovering from the flu, as the Texas Senate candidate pushed back against a rumor that he had been receiving treatment at a mental health clinic.
Talarico, 37, last appeared in person at a fundraiser in New York City on September 29. The next day, he joined a business council meeting virtually, explaining that he had become ill and did not want to risk infecting anyone else.
‘I was starting to feel under the weather a few days ago,’ he told the audience, according to The New York Times.
‘Last night, it got so bad I went to the urgent care here in Dallas, and I was diagnosed with the flu, so I’m running a fever and I’m at my most contagious right now,’ he said. ‘I guess I’ve been shaking too many hands on the campaign trail.’
The Democrat is in a closely contested race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. He told the audience that protecting others was his priority while he was sick.
‘If I was passing on this illness to somebody and got someone’s grandmother or someone’s baby sick, I couldn’t live with myself,’ Talarico said.
He resumed public campaigning at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Friday, 10 days after his previous in-person appearance. Talarico said he had been dealing with a ‘nasty case of the flu’ and had spent the time ‘home, stuck in bed.’
His absence, coming only weeks before the midterm elections, nevertheless fueled a wave of online speculation. Among the rumors was a claim that Talarico had been admitted to a mental health clinic in Ohio.
Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico, center, said he spent 10 days away from the campaign trail while recovering from the flu
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Talarico’s opponent, and President Donald Trump shared posts suggesting that the Democrat was ‘missing in action’
The speculation intensified after Paxton hinted online that Talarico was concealing an underlying issue. Paxton and his allies also produced mock ‘missing’ posters targeting the Democratic candidate.
At one point, the attorney general even challenged Talarico to pose for a photograph holding a newspaper with the date clearly visible as proof that he was alive.
‘We’ve tried posters. We’ve tried a formal proof-of-life request. Now we’re asking every Texan to join the search for Jimmy,’ the Paxton campaign said.
Republicans also set up a telephone hotline called the ‘Tala-Freak-Out Tip Line,’ inviting Texans to report any sightings of their political rival.
President Donald Trump added to the speculation on Wednesday, posting that Talarico was ‘MISSING IN ACTION!’
‘No one has seen him for an extended period of time. Where is he? What is wrong with him?’ Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding that ‘Bad rumors are coming out.’
Later that evening, Paxton led thousands of supporters at a rally with Trump in a chant of ‘Where is James Talarico?’
The following day, US Senator Ted Cruz joined the campaign online by sharing an image of Talarico’s face on a milk carton modeled after a missing-child poster. The image read: ‘Have you seen this man?’
Paxton’s Republican allies, including Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, circulated posts claiming that Talarico had mysteriously vanished from the campaign trail just weeks before the midterm elections
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The rumors soon took another turn, with some people online claiming that Talarico had been admitted to a mental health facility. Republican influencers even said they had recorded a call with the facility while pretending to be his cousin.
Talarico told MS Now the rumor was ‘the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.’
‘It’s wild that someone can just put up something on the Internet, and then the media just runs with it,’ he noted, before dismissing the speculation as ‘silly season in our politics’ and issuing a fresh challenge to Paxton.
‘He asked for proof of life from me. I’m asking proof of spine from him,’ Talarico said, referring to his repeated invitations to Paxton to debate him.
‘I’ve heard credible reports that Ken Paxton has a serious medical condition that causes clinical level of cowardice,’ he then joked.
He also told NBC DFW that the conspiracies are ‘a good reminder you can’t believe everything you read on the Internet.’
Talarico returned to the campaign trail at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Friday
Talarico is seen posing with country singer Kacey Musgraves at the music festival
‘I had the flu and I’m feeling much better, and I’m glad I had a chance to recover,’ he asserted.
‘You know, if you don’t take the opportunity to get well, sometimes you can get even sicker and so I’m glad we made the decision to just take the week, get better and now I’m glad to be back on the trail.’
Kendall Scudder, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, meanwhile, told NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt on The Hill Sunday that the campaign is now ‘full steam ahead.’
‘And of course, you’re going to see people in the swamps of the internet making up conspiracy theories. That’s what they always do,’ he said.
‘But the fact of the matter is, people sometimes get sick when you’re diabetic,’ Scudder said, referring to Talarico’s Type 1 diabetes diagnosis.
‘It takes you a little while to get recovered.’
JT Ennis, a spokesman for the Talarico campaign, also noted that he held ‘more than 100 public events’ and shook ‘tens of thousands of hands’ before getting sick.
Still, Paxton questioned his opponent’s explanation.
‘James Talarico claims he was missing for 13 days because he had the “flu.” Who actually believes that?’ he posted on Saturday, including an inaccurate number of days Talarico had been off the campaign trail.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the clinic where the Republican influencers say Talarico had been admitted for comment.
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