Ken Paxton is turning James Talarico’s illness into a Texas-sized campaign roast, getting supporters to chant “Where is James Talarico?” while Republicans frame the Democrat’s absence from public events as a political mystery.
Since a Sept. 28 New York fundraiser with actor Robert De Niro, Talarico (D-TX) has not made another in-person stop in his U.S. Senate run against Paxton, local outlets reported.
The official explanation from his campaign is the flu, with aides blaming the illness on the nonstop handshaking that comes with retail politics.
“Where do you think they hid that little socialist?” Paxton asked the crowd. “So I want you to help me, because the media hasn’t been really asking, ‘Where is he?’ They would be asking where I was after two minutes. So I want you to help me. We’re going to practice something.”
Paxton counted off “one, two, three,” and the room shouted back, “Where is James Talarico?”
Where are they hiding that little socialist?
@jamestalarico pic.twitter.com/dFxYsg1T9Q
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) October 7, 2026
“Maybe we’ll get an answer for that,” Paxton grinned.
Paxton’s mock search campaign soon spread online, where he shared missing-person-style posters needling Talarico over canceled Texas appearances.
“Missing posters are popping up across Texas as the search continues,” Paxton wrote. “LAST SEEN: 12 days ago. Texans everywhere are asking: where is James Talarico?”
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J.T. Ennis, a spokesman for Talarico, framed the absence as the price of more than 100 public events and thousands of handshakes.
“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 in a statement cited by CNN.
Ennis also tried to turn the scrutiny back on Paxton, accusing the Republican of ignoring voters while answering to wealthy donors and outside interests.
“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 statement added.
President Donald Trump jumped into Paxton’s missing-candidate routine Wednesday on Truth Social, renaming Talarico “James TalaFREAKo” and treating the Democrat’s absence as suspicious.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, upon information and belief, James TalaFREAKo, who is running for the United States Senate in Texas, is MISSING IN ACTION!” Trump wrote.
“No one has seen him for an extended period of time. Where is he? What is wrong with him?” he chided. “Bad rumors are coming out.”
By the time Trump took a rally microphone, the missing-candidate joke had merged with a separate Republican attack on Talarico’s 2022 “non-meat” campaign pledge.
“You haven’t seen him in a couple of weeks. I hear the guy’s disappeared,” Trump told the crowd. “He’s sick because he’s been forced to eat meat for political reasons! And he’s throwing up all over the place!”
The president turned the bit into a picture of Talarico trying to choke down barbecue for Texas voters despite his past campaign stance.
“He’d show up at a barbecue, and he’d stuff little ribs down his throat,” Trump quipped. “He’d go to the back of the tent, and he’d throw up all over the place because he doesn’t want meat! This is a guy that likes lettuce, not steak.”
Trump also used the rally to warn conservatives against letting Talarico win.
“I’ll never forgive Texas if Talarico wins,” Trump warned the cheering crowd as he pressed conservative voters to maximize turnout across the state.
“A vote for Talafreako is a vote to turn Texas into a dirty, failing, crime-ridden third-world dumping ground.”
Trump added, “The people of Texas are NOT going to let weak, gutless, self-hating, transgender-promoting FREAK SHOWS destroy everything that we’ve built.”
Before the rally, Trump had already found a way to drag Talarico into a steak question in Nebraska.
Asked there about his favorite cut, Trump veered away from his own dinner preferences and back to the Texas Democrat.
“Honestly I like them all unlike Talafreako in Texas, where he’s a vegan and all of a sudden he eats steak, and he’s not happy,” Trump replied.
“He goes and throws up after he eats it,” Trump added. “This is a vegan. This is a guy that likes lettuce, not steak.”
The barbecue line rests on Talarico’s 2022 campaign spending policy, when he announced that campaign purchases would go only to vegan products from local vegan businesses while discussing climate change and animal treatment.
“Not just because it’s the right thing to do, and the moral thing to do, but also, as all of you know, it’s necessary to fight climate change,” Talarico said. “It is now existential that we try to reduce our meat consumption and that we try to respect animals in all aspects of society.”
“I am proud to say that our campaign has officially become a non-meat campaign,” he announced. “We are only buying vegan products from our local vegan businesses.”
Talarico has argued that the buying policy is not a personal menu.
“They’ve even called me a vegan, and those are fighting words in the state of Texas,” Talarico said at a rally.
November, here we come. pic.twitter.com/ux1w1WzGNO
— Democrats (@TheDemocrats) May 27, 2026
The Democratic National Committee’s official X account answered the meat attacks with a barbecue photo of Talarico and a campaign-ready caption.
“November, here we come,” the DNC caption read.
