{"id":461823,"date":"2026-10-10T03:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461823\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T03:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T03:48:24","slug":"talarico-spotted-at-austin-city-limits-after-paxton-launches-tipline-for-sightings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/461823\/","title":{"rendered":"Talarico spotted at Austin City Limits after Paxton launches tipline for sightings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

Republican Senate candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a tipline Friday, asking for sightings of Democratic rival and state Rep. James Talarico.<\/p>\n

Paxton has seized on the narrative that Talarico has gone missing this week.<\/p>\n

Talarico’s campaign said he had the flu. He was spotted at Austin City Limits on Friday.<\/p>\n

DALLAS – Democratic Senate candidate and Texas state Rep. James Talarico was spotted at the Austin City Limits festival on Friday just hours after his Republican rival and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a tipline asking supporters for sightings.<\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

It’s a narrative that the Paxton camp has seized on this week after Talarico attended an event virtually instead of in person and canceled other campaign stops. He even brought it up during a campaign stop with President Donald Trump in San Antonio this week.<\/p>\n

People who call the tipline (833-569-9258) hear a voice that recounts the number of days Talarico has been off the stump trail, asks them to leave a message if they’ve seen the Democrat and reminds them to vote for Paxton.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

“We’ve tried posters. We’ve tried a formal proof-of-life request. Now we’re asking every Texan to help bring Jimmy home,” Madison Cercy, a spokesperson for the Paxton camp said in a statement. “If you spot James Talarico in Texas, call the tip line. If you spot him at a Hollywood fundraiser, don’t bother. We already know he’ll show up for those. Texans shouldn’t need a hotline to find the man asking for their vote.”<\/p>\n

Talarico campaign says he has the flu<\/p>\n

A video of Talarico walking around the festival ground at Austin City Limits surfaced on social media Friday. It was reposted<\/a> by JT Ennis, a spokesperson for the campaign, who said, “Hate to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but James is still alive and meeting with voters at ACL today.”<\/p>\n

Talarico’s campaign said his absence is easily explained \u2013 he was sick.<\/p>\n

The other side<\/p>\n

“After holding more than 100 public events and meeting with tens of thousands of supporters, James came down with the flu but will be back on the trail soon,” JT Ennis, spokesperson for the Talarico campaign, said in a statement. “Ken Paxton has spent this campaign hiding from everyone — running away from reporters’ questions and ducking repeated offers to debate James Talarico, even on Fox News. While James was meeting with Texans all summer, Ken Paxton was on a luxurious European vacation. Paxton has been ignoring Texans this entire campaign, and his priorities are clear: he doesn’t answer to the people of this state \u2013 he answers to his billionaire megadonors and special interests.”<\/p>\n

\"<div>Ken<\/p>\n

Ken Paxton (left) and James Talarico (right) speak at campaign events in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 21, 2026.<\/p>\n

(FOX 4)<\/p>\n

Razor-thin margins<\/p>\n

Big picture view<\/p>\n

Polls continue to show the Texas Senate race is tight, with the candidates inside the margin of error in most surveys.<\/p>\n

Early voting in Texas begins Oct. 19. Election Day is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

Information in this story came from a press release issued by Ken Paxton, a statement issued by the Talarcio campaign on Tuesday and previous FOX Local reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Republican Senate candidate and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched a tipline Friday, asking for sightings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-461823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}