Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico returned to the campaign trail on Friday after a nearly two-week absence, ending days of speculation and criticism about his whereabouts by political opponents.
“I hate to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but James is alive and meeting with voters today at the ACL,” JT Ennis, Talarico’s main spokesman, wrote on
The post included a video of the candidate walking through the crowd and greeting supporters at Austin’s City Limits music festival.
Talarico is challenging Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in a high-profile U.S. Senate race and has not made a public appearance on the campaign trail since late September.
His last in-person event was a Sept. 26 news conference in Carrollton to discuss rising gas prices.
Talarico’s campaign attributed the absence to a severe case of the flu. However, the lengthy pause drew sharp criticism from Republicans, including President Trump.
Trump said in an article published on Truth Social that the Democrat was “missing.”
“TalaFREAKo has been missing for 12 days! Now, after searching for him across Texas and beyond, and perhaps even stranger places than anyone imagined, he has issued a statement saying he has ‘the flu,'” Trump wrote.
“Twelve days is a long time to get rid of the so-called flu virus. What’s going on?” he added.
“We need a proven champion senator who is, without a doubt, the greatest attorney general in Texas history and one of the greatest attorneys general in the United States.”
Talarico’s campaign pushed back against suggestions that he was absent from the campaign trail for nearly two weeks, saying he participated in a U.S. Hispanic Business Council Zoom meeting on Sept. 30 after canceling an in-person event.
The campaign argued that his absence lasted nearly nine days because he participated in Zoom.
Talarico’s last public event was a campaign event in Texas on September 26, when he held a news conference in Carrollton. On September 28, he attended a fundraiser in New York City.
The next day, he said he was diagnosed with the flu.
Talarico’s absence also prompted Paxton to target his opponent’s absence during the campaign.
“Where is James Talarico?” Paxton asked at a campaign rally in San Antonio.
Talarico’s campaign confirmed he expects to return to a full in-person schedule throughout the weekend leading up to a CNN town hall meeting on Oct. 14.
The campaign previously noted that Talarico had completed more than 100 public campaign events across the state before falling ill.