Around 9am on Sunday, I received several frantic calls and texts from a Republican operative who claimed to have proof that James Talarico, the Democratic Senate candidate on the verge of turning Texas blue for the first time in decades, had checked into a mental health facility for psychiatric care.
The so-called proof was a six-minute recording of a phone call to the Lindner Center of Hope, a hospital in Mason, Ohio more than 1,000 miles from Talarico’s hometown of Austin.
An edited version of the recording was later made public on social media and spread like wildfire before it was debunked.
In the audio, a staff member repeatedly says she cannot find a patient by Talarico’s name. First she says there is no record of him being there in the past four days and later, she contradicts herself and says he had been ‘discharged this evening… that’s why I don’t have it.’
The health facility has since stated that Talarico ‘never received treatment’ there and Talarico responded to the audio by saying he has never even been to Ohio.
Like many other reporters in Texas and across the country, I had been looking into why Talarico mysteriously took 10 days off in the middle of a historic election and one of the most watched campaigns in the country.
His absence included canceling public events, as well as private fundraisers, something rarely done in such a high-stakes race.
Talarico, 37, reappeared at an Austin music festival on Friday and his campaign team had maintained since September 30 that the diabetic candidate was suffering from a bad bout of flu. But false rumors had been circulating in Republican circles that he had been struggling with his mental health under the pressure of campaigning and that he may have sought treatment in Ohio.
When I was approached with the recording on Sunday, I was told the Daily Mail had to publish the recording ‘immediately’.
We declined.
In his last public appearance on September 30, Talarico spoke with Hispanic voters via Zoom, informing them he could not attend the event in person due to having the flu
Democrat James Talarico responded to false claims that he a patient at mental health unit in Ohio
There were serious questions about the recording’s authenticity and about how the information had been obtained, and whether Talarico’s privacy had been violated in the process.
Unhappy with that answer, the caller, Rhein Amacher- whose real name is Ryan- who claims to be a former Trump staffer, gave the recording to paid GOP influencer Nick Sortor.
Sortor published an edited version of the call on X on Sunday afternoon, where it racked up millions of views in a matter of hours and caught the attention of Elon Musk, who boosted it by commenting: ‘!!’
Within hours, the Ohio health center shut down the rumors, stating that the young politician has ‘never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.’
In the unedited recording given to the Daily Mail, Amacher poses as a man named ‘Tim’ who is trying to send a care package to his cousin, Talarico.
It was his second call to the center. On the first, he had been told he could not get any information without a code from the patient.
In his second attempt, Amacher gives a fake code, which the staff member struggles to match to any patient.
‘He must have checked out then,’ Amacher suggests.
‘I do not see that name here, so maybe he’s been discharged,’ says the staff member, who appears to be an elderly woman.
Amacher presses her on when he left. After a long pause, she comes back on the line: ‘I do not find anyone by that name for the last four days, that’s been discharged, and they’re not here in the building.’
Talarico was seen at the music festival in Austin, Texas on Friday after a prolonged absence
Talarico canceled an October 5 event with black voters in Austin
Only when Amacher keeps pushing does she contradict herself: ‘What is today… looks like he was just discharged this evening. That’s why I don’t have it.’
That line was the one featured in the shortened clip that went viral. But the timeline does not add up.
Amacher admits he made the call on Saturday night, when Talarico and his girlfriend were in the front row at a Kacey Musgraves concert in Austin.
When I asked Amacher to explain the discrepancy on Monday morning, he said: ‘You can basically discharge without paperwork, and you know, the paperwork usually follows.
‘It’s not all at once, but she confirmed that he was there. The dates might not line up perfectly.’
Amacher, a Republican who wants Ken Paxton to win the election, says he came up with the idea of calling the Ohio facility after it was circulated online as the place Talarico had spent his time off.
‘[Talarico] … doesn’t get called out enough,’ he told the Daily Mail.
While Republicans claimed Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was being discharged from a mental health hospital in Ohio, he was actually at a Kacey Musgraves concert in the Lone Star State Saturday night
Talarico, 37, finally resurfaced at Austin City Limits Music Festival after a 13-day absence from the campaign trail
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Republican candidate for US Senate Ken Paxton (R) during a campaign rally at the Freeman Coliseum in San Antonio, Texas, on October 7, 2026
Ryan Amacher, 36, admitted to making the phone call at the center of a conspiracy theory about James Talarico. Amacher told Daily Mail this photo of him used as Twitter profile pic is AI generated
‘I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. I want the public to know what he’s been doing.’
He denies being paid by Paxton, Talarico’s opponent in the Senate race.
Paxton’s team helped fuel the speculation last week by tipping off reporters about potential mental health issues. His campaign alleged, without proof, that Talarico, was not recovering from flu but had suffered a mental breakdown and checked into a mental health facility.
Legal experts said Talarico likely has grounds to sue Amacher for trying to obtain his private health information, which is protected under federal law.
Asked whether he was afraid of being sued, Amacher said he had yet to hear anything directly from Talarico or his campaign.
‘I didn’t do anything wrong. All I said was I want to send him a care package. They can confirm or deny that was a patient there. I just asked to send a care package. I could say I was Santa Claus for all I care.’
Friends have advised him to keep a low profile, he said, but he will appear on a cable TV network tonight to defend his work.
It comes as polls suggest Talarico, a former schoolteacher, could pull off a stunning Midterms upset in a state Donald Trump won by nearly 14 points in 2024.
A victory for Talarico on November 3 would make him the first Democrat elected to the US Senate from Texas since 1988.
