Talarico was home in Texas during campaign absence, photos indicate

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign shared security camera footage with CBS News that appears to show Talarico at his home in Texas for the first eight days of this month — pushing back on claims that Talarico was hiding the reasons for his disappearance.

Talarico was absent from the campaign trail for almost two weeks, saying he caught a bad case of the flu. The disappearance drew criticism and speculation from his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton.

But on Monday, Talarico’s campaign shared a set of security camera images that they say show the state lawmaker and Democratic candidate at his home in Texas every day from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, one day before Talarico made a public appearance.

The eight timestamped images — which include watermarks from home security camera company SimpliSafe — appeared to have been taken from a camera in the backyard of Talarico’s house in the state capital of Austin. CBS News matched features in the backyard to recent satellite imagery of Talarico’s address. Though low resolution, the photos show a male figure with brown hair at various times of day and wearing different outfits.

The images were first reported by The New York Times.

The mental health facility at the center of the conspiracy theories, Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio, also wrote on social media that Talarico “has never received treatment” there.

Talarico campaign spokesman J.T. Ennis said in a statement that claims Talarico was elsewhere were “a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory.”

“Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas recovering from the flu,” Ennis said.

Timeline: What we know about James Talarico’s whereabouts

Talarico was not seen in public for just under two weeks, from late September to late Friday.

His last known in-person event in Texas took place on Saturday, Sept. 26, in the Dallas suburb of Carrollton. Two days later, he was in New York City for a series of fundraisers, including a joint fundraiser with Ohio Democratic Senate nominee Sherrod Brown hosted by Robert De Niro.

On Sept. 30, Talarico pulled out of an in-person conversation with Javier Palomarez, president of the United States Hispanic Business Council. He instead appeared for a virtual Q&A.

“I was starting to feel under the weather a few days ago,” Talarico told the audience, apologizing for not appearing in person. “And last night it got so bad that I went to the urgent care here in Dallas and I was diagnosed with the flu. So I’m running a fever and I’m at my most contagious right now.” (He later told a reporter he went to his primary care physician.)

A day later, on Oct. 1, Talarico’s campaign called to cancel an appearance at the Central Texas African American Civic Engagement Symposium scheduled for the upcoming week, according to Essien Ita, the group’s leader. Ita told CBS News that Talarico’s staff declined to reschedule the appearance, and said they had canceled other events through Oct. 5.

The following week, President Trump traveled to San Antonio to campaign with Paxton. The president and Paxton, the state attorney general, both referenced Talarico’s absence.

“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,” Mr. Trump said, referencing Talarico’s past comments on trying to reduce meat consumption. (Talarico has denied that he is a vegan.)

Earlier in the rally, Paxton said: “When I came in here today, we were on day 11 of James Talarico not showing up in public and canceling all public appearances. Where do you think they hid that little socialist?” He then had the audience yell “Where Is James Talarico?” in unison.

Talarico was seen in public for the first time this month on Friday, Oct. 9, when a campaign spokesperson posted a video of him greeting festivalgoers at the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

On the same day, Talarico told CBS News in a text: “Feeling much better. Back on the trail!”

Talarico had several other public appearances over the weekend, attending a Kasey Musgraves concert in San Antonio on Saturday and giving interviews on Sunday to NBC’s Dallas-Fort Worth station and The Dallas Morning News’ editorial board.

“It wasn’t anything worse than a nasty case of the flu. And so I was in bed and, you know, drinking lots of liquids. Unfortunately, the campaign made me work from home, so I didn’t even get full days off,” he told a local NBC reporter, saying he didn’t want to get anyone else sick.

Paxton suggested something was amiss, saying Talarico “owes Texans answers.”

“James Talarico claims he was missing for 13 days because he had the flu,” Paxton wrote in a post on X over the weekend. “Who actually believes that?”

At around the same time, social media users began speculating — without evidence — that Talarico had flown to Ohio for mental health treatment.

Then, on Sunday, conservative social media personalities shared an unverified recording in which somebody appeared to call Ohio’s Lindner Center of Hope to ask whether Talarico was checked in. A staff member at the mental health center ostensibly said he had been discharged.

CBS News could neither authenticate nor debunk the veracity of the call. The Lindner Center of Hope said publicly that Talarico did not receive treatment at the mental health facility.

The local NBC station asked Talarico about the rumors. He denied them and said: “It’s a good reminder that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet.”