James Talarico returned to the campaign trail after a multi-day absence from the flu as the Texas Senate hopeful dismissed a rumor he was being treated at a mental health clinic.
Talarico, 37, had held an in-person campaign event on September 29 at a fundraiser in New York City. The following day, he appeared virtually before a business council saying he had fallen ill and was concerned about getting others sick.
‘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 added. ‘I guess I’ve been shaking too many hands on the campaign trail.’
The Democrat, who is locked in a tight race with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, then went on to say he wanted to ‘keep everybody safe.’
‘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,’ he said.
He returned to the campaign trail at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Friday, 10 days after his last in-person appearance, reiterating that he had been sick with a ‘nasty case of the flu’ and was ‘home, stuck in bed.’
But his disappearance just weeks before the midterm elections set off a wave of conspiracy theories – including that Talarico had been admitted to a mental health clinic in Ohio.
Democratic Senate hopeful James Talarico (center) has said he was off the campaign trial for 10 days because he was recovering from the flu
His opponent in the race in Texas, Attorney General Ken Paxton, and President Donald Trump shared posts claiming the Democrat was ‘missing in action’
The fervor spread after Paxton suggested online that Talarico had some underlying problem he did not want to divulge as he and his allies created ‘missing posters.’
The Attorney General even demanded at one point that Talarico pose for a photo holding a newspaper with the date visible to prove he is 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 declared.
The Republicans even established a telephone hotline, dubbed the ‘Tala-Freak-Out Tip Line,’ encouraging Texans to report sightings of their political rival.
President Donald Trump also joined in on the speculation, claiming on Wednesday 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 posted on his Truth Social platform, noting that: ‘Bad rumors are coming out.’
Later that night, Paxton led a crowd of thousands of supporters at a rally with Trump in a chant of ‘Where is James Talarico?’
The following day, US Senator Ted Cruz joined in, sharing a photo of Talarico’s face on a milk carton, akin to a missing child poster, reading: ‘Have you seen this man?’
Paxton’s Republican allies, including Trump and Senator Ted Cruz, spread the message online that Talarico had mysteriously disappeared from the campaign trail with just weeks to go before the midterm elections
Soon, some online started to claim Talarico had been admitted to a mental health facility in Ohio. Republican influencers even claimed to record a phone call with the facility while posing as his cousin.
The facility released a statement on Sunday night saying that Talarico had not been a patient there.
‘Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope,’ they wrote on social media.
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.’
‘I had the flu and I’m feeling much better, and I’m glad I had a chance to recover,’ he asserted.
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
‘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.
