By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-10-08 12:21:23 | Updated at 2026-10-08 15:35:15
8 hours ago
Where in the world is James Talarico?
That was the burning question in San Antonio on Wednesday night as Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton took to the stage at a rally, turning his Democrat opponent’s sudden disappearance from the campaign trail into a crowd participation game.
Paxton called out the Democrat senatorial candidate for pulling a nine-day vanishing act, demanding to know why the state’s political press corps had also gone missing.
“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 then led the auditorium in a chant, counting off “one, two, three!” before the audience bellowed in unison: “Where is James Talarico?”
“Maybe we’ll get an answer for that,” Paxton grinned.
The 37-year-old Democratic contender hasn’t been seen at an in-person campaign stop since a September 28 fundraiser in New York with actor Robert De Niro. After scrapping a series of Texas events, Talarico’s team scrambled to clear the air. A campaign spokesman insisted the candidate simply caught a case of the flu after shaking “tens of thousands of hands” and promised he would return to the trail this weekend ahead of a scheduled CNN town hall.
But President Donald Trump had his own theory for why “Tofu Talarico” was out of action.
Taking the mic at the rally, the president mocked Talarico’s past crusade against meat, zeroing in on a 2022 clip where the Democrat announced his campaign was going strictly “non-meat” to combat climate change. Trump suggested Talarico wasn’t suffering from the seasonal flu at all, but rather suffering from forced meat consumption on the campaign trail.
“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!”
Trump painted a vivid picture of the Democrat trying to look tough for Lone Star State voters by forcing down Texas brisket against his inner vegan beliefs.
“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.”
Days earlier, Trump took a swipe at “Talafreako” while answering a reporter’s question in Nebraska about his favorite cut of steak, declaring that the Texas Democrat eats steak only to get sick later.
Talarico’s camp has frantically tried to squash the “vegan” label. They have called it “fighting words in the state of Texas” while the DNC posted photos of him eating local barbecue.
Early voting kicks off on October 19.
