Texas Democratic U.S. Senate nominee James Talarico made his first in-person campaign appearance in nearly two weeks on Friday, resurfacing at the Austin City Limits Music Festival after an absence that drew mounting criticism from Republicans, including President Donald Trump.
“Hate to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but James is still alive and meeting with voters at ACL today,” Talarico’s primary spokesperson, JT Ennis, wrote on X, sharing a video of the candidate walking through crowds and greeting supporters at the festival.
Talarico, who is challenging Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a closely watched Senate race, had not appeared in person at a campaign event since Sept. 26, when he held a news conference in Carrollton addressing rising gas prices. His campaign has said he was sidelined by a severe case of the flu.
The gap in his public schedule became a target for Republicans. President Trump wrote on Truth Social that the Democrat 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,'” Trump wrote. “12 days is a long time to rid yourself of the so-called flu bug. What’s going on?”
Trump went on to praise Paxton, calling him “without question, the Greatest Attorney General in the History of Texas, and one of the Greatest in the U.S.A.”
Paxton also pressed the issue at a campaign rally in San Antonio, asking the crowd, “Where is James Talarico?”
Talarico’s campaign disputed the idea that he had vanished from the trail entirely for 12 days, noting he joined a Zoom meeting with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council on Sept. 30 after canceling an in-person appearance. By that accounting, the campaign said, his absence was closer to nine days.
According to the timeline the campaign has laid out, Talarico attended a fundraiser in New York City on Sept. 28, two days after his Carrollton news conference, and announced his flu diagnosis the following day.
The campaign said Talarico is expected to resume a full in-person schedule through the weekend as he prepares for an Oct. 14 CNN town hall. It also pointed out that before falling ill, he had already completed more than 100 public campaign events across Texas.
