Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is back on the campaign trail, after President Donald Trump and Republican candidate, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, raised speculation this week about where the candidate had been.
“Hate to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but James is still alive and meeting with voters at ACL today," spokesperson JT Ennis said in a press release on Oct. 9.
Talarico attended the Austin City Limits music festival on Oct. 9, according to the campaign and a video posted on X by an event attendee. Talarico had last been seen in person at a private event on Sept. 29 and public event on Sept. 26. On Sept. 30 he was set to attend an event with the Hispanic Business Council but ended up joining virtually because
his campaign said he had the flu.
The Texas Senate race is one on a list of about a dozen races that both Democrats and Republicans are vying for this midterm season. Voters in the Lone Star State have not elected a Democrat to Senate since 1988, but a poll by UMass Lowell/YouGov on Oct. 8 said that the race is in a tie and political experts rate it as a toss-up race.
When Trump attended a campaign event for the Republican candidate on Oct. 9, he called widespread attention to Talarico's whereabouts, saying, “I hear the guy has disappeared – nobody knows. You know where he is? He's sick because he's forced to eat meat for political reasons and he's throwing up all over the place.”
Trump said that Talarico hadn't been seen for a "couple of weeks," although the virtual attendance had been just one week prior. The meat comments came in line with months of Trump and Republican attacks, calling the Texas Democrat a vegan, which Talarico says is not true.
Before Trump's appearance in Texas, Paxton had already been highlighting Talarico as missing, and on Oct. 6, his campaign issued a press release saying that "No-Show Talarico" has "gone missing" with a third cancelled event.
"Once is an excuse," Paxton's team wrote in the release. "Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern."
Paxton responded to Talarico's reemergence, still doubling down on the attack, writing on X that "He doesn’t get to reappear like nothing happened after ghosting the 31 million Texans he wants to represent for two weeks."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: James Talarico returns to Texas Senate campaign trail after absence
