WASHINGTON — Texas Senate hopeful James Talarico’s social media influencer army has been privately fretting over his prolonged absence from the campaign trail, leaked Slack messages obtained by The Post reveal.
Talarico, who has type 1 diabetes, last had an in-person public campaign event on gas prices on Sept. 26 — 12 days ago. He was seen at a private fundraiser in New York City headlined by Robert De Niro on Sept. 28, though he did appear at a virtual Hispanic Business Council forum on Sept. 30.
Privately on Wednesday, in a Slack channel featuring Talarico’s digital surrogates, several influencers raised tepid concerns about the messaging strategy amid his absence.
“I think it’ll be fine. It’s [j]ust conservatives blasting him. I’m just worried about him losing momentum,” Alex Balderas wrote in a group chat with influencers, featuring nearly 4,000 people.
“But I 100% expect him to make a comeback at the CNN [t]own hall that’s a given.”
Talarico is set to partake in a CNN town hall on Oct. 14. His campaign told The Post that Talarico will reemerge this weekend.
Critics, particularly allies of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, have raised doubts about whether influenza alone could explain why Talarico has been absent from the campaign trail for so long.
“TalaFREAKo has been missing for 12 days!” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Thursday, deploying his preferred nickname for the lefty pol.
“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,’” the president continued. “12 days is a long time to rid yourself of the so-called flu bug.
“What’s going on?”
Talarico’s allies also suggested his campaign needs to provide more updates on his health.
“I suppose spokesman JT Ennis should come out and update on James health,” Balderas wrote in a Slack message Wednesday. “Conservatives doubting he’s sick but conservatives leaving out the important part.”
“James is diabetic that’s why it’s taking awhile for recovery so basically conservatives and Paxton are being. very immoral [sic].”
Elsewhere, in the leaked Slack chat, a campaign volunteer, Jacob Weber, shrugged off the consternation over Talarico’s whereabouts as a nothing burger.
“It’s a buncha people that don’t actually want him to be out touring that are causing a stink. Noone’s genuinely upset,” Weber wrote.
Balderas concurred in response, “Yeah it’s the conservatives they’re making it a big deal over two canceled events because he’s sick. But he’ll be back.”
“Hope James blast[s] Paxton for being absent the whole time after he won his runoff.”
Despite Texas being a red state, Talarico has run a remarkably competitive race against Paxton, notching a 2.8 percentage point edge over him, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate of polls.
Paxton taunted Talarico with a proof-of-life demand on X. Trump also lashed out at Talarico.
“I hear the guy’s disappeared. Nobody knows,” Trump chided at a Wednesday rally. “You know where he is? He’s sick because he’s been forced to eat meat for political reasons, and he’s throwing up all over the place. He’s sick.”
“No, we’re all looking. Nobody can find the guy. He’s gone for two weeks, you know.”
On Truth Social, Trump further called for Talarico to debate Paxton, something his campaign quickly embraced, as it had been mounting a pressure campaign against the Texas attorney general to face him in a verbal bout for weeks.
When asked for comment about both the leaked Slack messages, Talarico’s campaign revealed that the state rep will return to the campaign trail soon.
“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,” Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis told The Post.
“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.”
Over the past week and a half, Paxton has dealt with multiple stories based on a secret recording of his private remarks during a DC fundraiser last month.
In those recordings, Paxton ripped into the Iran war, grumbled over his lack of control over ad strategy amid a torrent of outside spending, and suggested Republicans’ numbers went down after the GOP midterm convention last month.
