WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic candidate James Talarico is offering a clearer account of his recent illness after spending more than a week away from in-person campaigning in the closely watched Texas Senate race, prompting widespread speculation online.
Talarico’s campaign told The Post Monday that he visited an urgent-care center on Sept. 29 before seeing his primary-care physician in Texas the following week. The campaign said the additional information was meant to explain why the candidate was sidelined during a race that could help determine control of the US Senate.
His campaign also said Talarico is healthy enough to debate Republican Ken Paxton, accusing Paxton of avoiding voters.
“James is excited to be back on the campaign trail after recovering from the flu,” spokesman JT Ennis said in a statement Monday. “It’s been 87 days since James challenged Ken Paxton to come out of hiding and answer Texans’ questions in a debate, which even President Trump called on him to do. Ball is in Paxton’s court.”
Talarico, 37, initially said he had been sick “so bad that I went to the urgent care in Dallas.” But after reappearing Sunday night, amid online speculation that he had suffered a mental health crisis, he said he had visited his “primary care physician” and that the illness was “nothing worse than a nasty case of the flu.”
The uncertainty surrounding his whereabouts and the differing descriptions of his medical visits fueled speculation that Talarico was receiving mental health treatment in Ohio. Both the campaign and the facility named in those claims have denied them.
“Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas recovering from the flu,” Ennis wrote on X after a self-described “right-wing provocateur” circulated claims — including an alleged phone call — that the Texas state representative had admitted himself to a treatment center in Cincinnati.
“Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope,” the mental health facility wrote on X. The center provides treatment for depression, anxiety and other psychiatric disorders.
Talarico replied, “I’ve never even been to Ohio,” adding a crying-laughing emoji.
Although Talarico was publicly seen at the Austin City Limits Music Festival on Oct. 9, prominent GOP-aligned accounts had begun circulating speculation about a trip to a mental health facility days earlier. The rumors followed his visibly ill appearance at a videotaped forum with the Hispanic Business Council on Sept. 30.
On Sept. 28 and 29, Talarico had traveled to New York City for high-dollar campaign fundraisers with fellow Democratic Senate candidate Sherrod Brown. Brown is running again after losing his Senate seat in 2024 to Sen. Bernie Moreno, R-Ohio. Actor Robert De Niro was among the celebrities involved in the events.
On Sunday, Talarico told an NBC affiliate in the Dallas area: “I got the flu and I’m feeling much better and I’m glad I had a chance to recover.”
Asked whether he needed additional recovery time because he has diabetes, Talarico said: “I just went to my primary care physician, but it wasn’t anything worse than a, you know, nasty case of the flu.”
He had previously said he visited a Dallas urgent-care center on the evening of Sept. 29, the same night he was scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Greenwich Village.
It remains unclear whether Talarico left that fundraiser early. His campaign announced on Oct. 6 that he had contracted the flu and would return to the trail “soon.” He reappeared three days later at the Austin-based music festival.
Hours before Talarico appeared at the festival on Oct. 9, former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt wrote on X: “My sources are telling me Talarico is in a mental health facility. His campaign has stopped actively planning events in the vital homestretch of the campaign.”
Other Republican-aligned accounts amplified the allegation. Several claimed Talarico had taken private flights between Austin and a small airport outside Cincinnati to reach the Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio.
Rhein Amacher, a former aide to Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign, later posted audio of a phone call he allegedly had with a Lindner Center of Hope employee on Saturday night. A staff member appears to say in the recording that Talarico had been “just discharged this evening.”
However, Talarico had been photographed in public at Austin City Limits the previous evening, Oct. 9.
The online insinuations emerged as Paxton, who is trailing Talarico in public polling, has also maintained a limited campaign presence. The Daily Mail reported that Paxton was traveling in Iceland and London with an alleged mistress.
Talarico would beat Paxton by 2.8 percentage points if the election were held today, per the RealClearPolitics polling average.
