Talarico campaign issues statement on his 13 DAY absence, blames 'the flu'

Democrat running for Senate in Texas James Talarico has been missing in action for nearly two weeks, with his campaign claiming his absence is because he came down with the flu. His campaign has said that he will be back on the campaign trail this weekend. 

Talarico has not appeared at an in-person campaign event since late September, with the campaign citing that he has a case of the flu. On Wednesday, President Donald Trump also raised questions about his whereabouts, saying that he was "missing in action."  

"TalaFREAKo has been missing for 12 days! Now, after looking for him throughout all of Texas, and beyond, probably even weirder places than anyone would think possible, he put out a statement that he has the 'flu.' 12 days is a long time to rid yourself of the so-called flu bug," Trump wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. "What’s going on? We need a Senator that’s a proven Champion like one that has been, without question, the Greatest Attorney General in the History of Texas, and one of the Greatest in the U.S.A." 

Ken Paxton, the Republican running against Talarico for the contested Senate seat in Texas, similarly raised questions about where the Democrat candidate has been. "Where is James Talarico?" Paxton said at a rally on Wednesday. Talarico's last publicly documented event was on September 26. He attended a fundraiser on September 30, but only virtually, and announced that he had the flu. Talarico also has Type 1 diabetes, which puts him at risk of more adverse flu symptoms.  

The campaign has said that Talarico will return to his in-person events the weekend ahead of his CNN town hall on October 14. Leaked messages from a Talarico volunteer group Slack channel saw volunteers saying that his spokeswoman should come out and give a health update, according to the New York Post.  

“I suppose spokesman JT Ennis should come out and update on James health,” Alex Balderas wrote in a Slack message Wednesday. “Conservatives doubting he’s sick but conservatives leaving out the important part.” 

Spencer Pratt claimed on X that sources have told him that Talarico is actually in a mental facility. "My sources are telling me Talarico is in a mental health facility. His campaign has stopped actively planning events in the vital homestretch of the campaign. If this is true, this is actually a time to pray for Talarico. We should, of course, savagely mock his smug, awful campaign advisors, by all means...and while yes, of course, this would be disqualifying for Talarico's aspirations to be a Texas Senator, we must hold empathy for anyone undergoing crisis," Pratt said.  

Rumors about his location actually being in a mental health facility swirled on Thursday, going into Friday. Paxton also leaned into those claims, saying on X that the Democrat "appears to be having a full-blown mental Tala-freak-out on the national stage."