Spencer Pratt suggests Democrat James Talarico’s campaign trail absence could go deeper than the ‘flu’
Current Texas State Rep. James Talarico, who is running for U.S. Senate seat against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, has been AWOL on the campaign trail for nearly two weeks. What is going on?
by Summer Lane | October 9, 2026
Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt suggested on Friday that James Talarico – the Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Texas – may be hiding something a little more serious than a case of the flu amid his campaign trail absence.
“My sources are telling me Talarico is in a mental health facility,” Pratt said on X. “His campaign has stopped actively planning events in the vital homestretch of the campaign. If this is true, this is actually a time to pray for Talarico. We should, of course, savagely mock his smug, awful campaign advisors, by all means…and while yes, of course, this would be disqualifying for Talarico’s aspirations to be a Texas Senator, we must hold empathy for anyone undergoing crisis.”
James Talarico has made waves amid his bid for the U.S. Senate in the great state of Texas. The supposed Presbyterian seminarian has espoused a controversial blend of left-wing progressivism and purported Christianity on the campaign trail, drawing criticism from Christians and conservatives alike.
Talarico, a current state representative, is running for the U.S. Senate seat against Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
For the past 13 days, Talarico has been entirely absent from the campaign trail, amid an extended battle with the “flu,” per his campaign. But with barely four weeks to go until election day, a prolonged disappearance from the Senate race is certainly a negative for Talarico’s campaign.
Pratt remarked on social media that campaigns are “brutal” and “not everybody is cut out for it.”
In a separate comment, he shared, “…When I was campaigning, I was doing vitamin IV’s, we had a full on supplement regime, I wouldn’t even drink water out of plastic bottles…I owed it to my donors and my supporters to be firing on all cylinders, nonstop; you can’t afford to have a down day, let alone a down week…or 2 weeks, now, in Talarico’s case. Unless they’re pulling some bizarre viral PR stunt, and we’re just waiting for the punchline…what these advisors are doing is despicable.”
Just one day before Pratt’s comments on X, President Donald Trump alluded to knowing more about Talarico’s condition than, perhaps, the Democrat’s campaign was willing to reveal
“TalaFREAKo has been missing for 12 days!” Trump wrote. “Now, after looking for him throughout all of Texas, and beyond, probably even weirder places than anyone would think possible, he put out a statement that he has the ‘flu.’ 12 days is a long time to rid yourself of the so-called flu bug. What’s going on?”
Photo: Pixabay
