Ken Paxton's campaign is pressing Democratic Senate rival James Talarico for "proof of life" after a 12-day vanishing act from the trail that even his volunteers privately fretted over.
Texas Attorney General and GOP Senate nominee Ken Paxton posted a tongue-in-cheek "Wanted" photo featuring James Talarico's face on X and demanded "Proof of Life" as the Democrat stayed off the physical campaign trail for nearly two weeks.
Breitbart News reported that the absence hit as the Texas U.S. Senate race entered a critical stretch, and Republicans opened a fresh line of attack on the Democratic nominee's whereabouts.
Talarico's last in-person public campaign appearance came on September 26, when he held a press conference pushing to suspend the federal gas tax and end the war with Iran. He did not return to physical events for 12 days.
On September 30 he told a virtual meeting of the United States Hispanic Business Council that he had gone to urgent care in Dallas and been diagnosed with the flu. He had originally been scheduled to attend that meeting in person.
"I was starting to feel kind of under the weather a few days ago, and last night it got so bad that I went to the urgent care here in Dallas, and I was diagnosed with the flu,"
Talarico said.
"I’m running a fever, and I’m at my most contagious right now, and I guess I’ve been shaking too many hands on the campaign trail, and so I want to keep everybody safe."
At a campaign rally in San Antonio on Wednesday, Paxton led the crowd in a chant about his opponent’s whereabouts. The attorney general has stayed visible while his rival remained out of sight.
That contrast fits a broader pattern in the contest, including earlier moments when Trump and Paxton called out Talarico for disappearing from the trail.
Talarico campaign spokesperson JT Ennis answered on Thursday. He tied the illness to a heavy earlier schedule and promised a quick return.
"After holding more than 100 public events and shaking tens of thousands of hands, James came down with the flu but will be back on the trail this weekend,"
Ennis said.
Ennis then shifted to an attack on the attorney general’s priorities and donors.
"Ken Paxton has been ignoring Texans this entire campaign, and his priorities are clear: He doesn’t answer to the people of this state, he answers to his billionaire megadonors and special interests."
The absence did not sit quietly inside Talarico’s own operation. The New York Post reported leaked Slack messages from a volunteer channel of nearly 4,000 people showing private fretting over the 12-day gap and lost momentum.
Those messages also noted Talarico’s type 1 diabetes as a complicating factor with the flu. Volunteers still expected a comeback built around an October 14 CNN town hall.
President Trump piled on with his own jab. “TalaFREAKo has been missing for 12 days!” he wrote on Truth Social, rejecting the illness explanation as sufficient.
RealClearPolitics showed Talarico holding a narrow 2.8 percentage point edge over Paxton even while the Democrat stayed off the trail. A thin lead is harder to defend when the candidate is invisible.
Paxton’s side has faced its own pressure inside the race, including episodes in which Paxton fretted over outside influence on his Senate bid.
Talarico’s September 26 press conference had framed suspending the federal gas tax as urgent relief. “This is the kind of immediate action we need to provide Texans some relief at the pump in the middle of this affordability crisis,” he said at the time.
Four days later he was on a virtual link explaining a fever and contagion risk. The campaign offered no medical documentation beyond his and Ennis’s statements. Independent confirmation of the diagnosis remains absent from the public record.
Fundraising muscle has already entered the picture on the Republican side. Outside groups have moved cash into the contest, including a large MAGA Inc. infusion for Paxton as the money gap drew notice.
Talarico has also spent earlier stretches of the race walking back positions on culture and taxes, admissions that already forced him to explain himself to Texas voters before the flu kept him home.
Those earlier stumbles, including moments when Talarico admitted he missed the mark on key issues, make a long physical absence harder to shrug off in a statewide contest.
Ennis promised the candidate would be “back on the trail this weekend.” Until that happens in public view, Paxton’s “Wanted” graphic and the “proof of life” demand remain the clearest daily message in the race.
Texas voters can watch who shows up, who stays home, and who answers for the gap. Campaigns run on contact, handshakes, and accountability, not on virtual excuses when the calendar gets tight.
