Where’s Talarico?
Democratic Senate candidate from Texas James Talarico has been missing from the campaign trail since September 26:
According to local press, Talarico’s campaign claims he is having a bad bout with the flu, which they say required a visit to urgent care. …
Paxton’s campaign was right on it, taking full advantage by putting out a milk carton photo of Talarico and asking if he’s been seen.
I, for one, believe the flu story, for the simple reason that I got the flu 12 days ago and I’m still not all better. Plus my son, who is far younger than I, also is still somewhat sick. This is a nasty, nasty bug that started with a cough, segued into many days of fever and exhaustion, and then turned into several GI symptoms; I’ll spare you by not describing the latter except to say they haven’t totally gone away.
So yes, Talarico’s campaign could actually be telling the truth about this. However, there isn’t much else it’s telling the truth about, especially the extreme leftism of the candidate, although certain aides seem to be letting it slip:
#TXSEN NEWS:
In the closing days of James Talarico’s race against @KenPaxtonTX, Talarico’s own staffers could cause major problems for the Texas Democrat — in this exclusive footage, one of Talarico’s Marxist field organizers explains how she views him as the "vehicle" to push Texas drastically leftward, and that Talarico is actually far more anti-Israel than he publicly claims to be
https://t.co/gNfe0SMVVe
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) October 1, 2026
The left has a long-held dream of turning Texas blue, and Talarico is their latest entry in this effort.
If Talarico went to an ER, there are records; he can waive his HIPAA rights.
If he is in recovery somewhere, there are video recorders (we call them phones), which will allow him to issue a statement.
Never discount the sympathy vote!
If he can’t talk, he would get even more votes just for being so sick.
If he is too sick for a photo-op, he needs to level with the public.
That shouldn’t hurt his chances.
After all, the Democrats elected a guy who had a stroke just before the election.
But maybe that’s not a good precedent in their view, considering Senator Fetterman’s political positions.
If Talarico told me it was raining, I’d run to the window to make sure.
He’s allegedly slightly ahead of Paxton in what would be the biggest Democratic prize of all – flipping Texas. The flu story is crap; he’d be out there if he had the Russian plague to try to win.
Talarico shows what is wrong with democracy. It gives toads a footstool for speech.
He was last seen holding hands with Adam Schiff and Shri Thanedar in the alley behind a bathhouse. If MsNow can pull narratives from thin air so can I.
Flu would keep you down but as mentioned above, easy enough to provide proof of life.
Neo is posting in spite pf flu and loss.
Where’s Talarico?
neo’s got an associative mind. So I suspect the title is partly a callback to the “Where’s Waldo?” series.
Sounds like a great meme, but checking the web no one has jumped on it … yet.
Anyone check his basement?
(Such a stellar strategy catapulted Sleepy Joe Biden into the record books….)
The left has a long-held dream of turning Texas blue, and Talarico is their latest entry in this effort.
In 40+ years of living in Texas, a Democrat campaign worker has knocked on my door just once. Church people, maybe 20+ times.
I told the Democrat campaign worker I was a yellow-dog Republican, so she quickly made an exit. Better I had wasted her time by getting into an extended conversation about Beto O’Rourke, the candidate in question. Such as comparing him to the Kennedys, and getting her to gush on that. Then to also point out that Beto and Ted Kennedy both used political connections to deal with their drunk driving. Beto, at least, had no blood on his hands.
Reminds me of Aimee Semple McPherson:
May 1926, McPherson—who was a massive media celebrity and the founder of the Foursquare Church—mysteriously vanished after going for a swim at Venice Beach, California.
Five weeks later, she stumbled out of the desert in Agua Prieta, Mexico. She claimed she had been kidnapped, drugged, held captive in a Mexican shack for a $500,000 ransom, and escaped.
The Secret Lover: Investigators and journalists immediately doubted her story. Media reports and circumstantial evidence strongly suggested she had actually staged the disappearance to spend a romantic, five-week tryst with her married radio engineer, Kenneth Ormiston, at a rented cottage in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California
Texas was blue until Bill Clements.
You never know when the Democrats might surprise you and tell the truth about something.
OTOH, the Biden 2020 campaign might be considered a stroke of genius. Where is Joe? Hiding in his basement. And that worked!??
The first time I noticed a political campaign that was a whole lot of nothing, and it worked, was the election of Gray Davis to the CA governorship. Strategist Bob Shrum engineered that one, and it was a bunch of “glossy” images of Davis and his blow-dried hairdo, a few platitudes and not much else.
I’ve been thinking about HC68’s comment a few days ago. The GOP has a horrible image among a large fraction of the public. People are terrified of them, was the comment. I’m in agreement, though we disagree slightly as to the reason.
If folks are genuinely terrified of the GOP, then all the alternative needs to be is “not wildly toxic.” Who cares if they are missing!
Of course, it’s not like all this is an accident. It’s been carefully planned and executed by the Dem leadership and their media lapdogs.
Well they never found Jimmy Hoffa, so don’t hold your, Platner?
Xavier Becerra is running the same sort of campaign in California. People who watched the one debate said Hilton smoked him, but probably not enough people saw it to make a difference.
I read that Talarico responded and challenged Paxton to 5 debates, and Paxton accepted one.
He may have had the flu. Like Neo, I’ve had it for about 10 days and had the same symptoms as her. Having said that, I was able to work from home and make some contributions. He could have posted a YouTube video with a quick message.
I read one report that said he has done some virtual appearances since September 29 which were implied to be live though much has been made of his campaign recycling footage for social media postings during his absence. His campaign did not inspire confidence in transparency by claiming he went to urgent care on September 28 which was the same day he was at an evening fundraiser in New York. I was just reading at Powerline this morning his campaign says he will appear on CNN October 14 so we’ll see if he sees his shadow in a few days.
I’m with mikeski. If the race is supposedly as close as published polls indicate then I would expect a candidate to be beating the bushes 24/7 regardless of condition. Also it’s not 2018 anymore, you can put together a virtual appearance almost as easily as making a phone call. Maybe he is actually sick but this certainly gives the impression his team has decided to limit his availability to avoid hard questions, or possibly is running short of money for travel and other expenses though he and allied groups have kept up ad spending.
FWIW, though a little off topic, there does seem to be a push coming for Paxton with donations and PAC spending for him picking up significantly which would tend to indicate his position is far from as hopeless as some people like to claim.
Doing a little more checking it appears that I have the dates wrong per the post from Matt Margolis at PJ Media below. He hasn’t had an in-person event in Texas since September 26 but did attend the fundraiser in NY on September 28. His campaign didn’t announce the flu diagnosis until October 6 but said the it happened on September 29 (though I did see a claim some reports had the urgent care visit on September 28). There is a link to a video where he announces the diagnosis if you want to judge how ill he appears for yourself.
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2026/10/08/are-we-really-supposed-to-believe-talarico-has-the-flu-n4958108
He’s pregnant.
One reason that he might be hiding is that the generic Democrat often leads against the actual Republican. That was part of Biden’s campaign success. They somehow made him, a man with 47 years in Federal Elective office, into an unknown generic Democrat by not showing him off.
That would likely be the DNCs best advice to candidates. Democrat and a Name is as specific as we get.
I read that Talarico responded and challenged Paxton to 5 debates, and Paxton accepted one.
==
Paxton has never worked as a trial lawyer, but he has been making arguments for a living for 30-odd years. Talarico did Teach for America for two years and has spent the rest of his adult life in staff positions for minor NGOs. I’m going to wager one of them is less intimidated by debates than the other.
Turns out he is in the nut house.
Must be from the meat protein residue screwing his synapses.