Ken Paxton touts ‘missing Talarico’ flyers across Texas
Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton mocked opponent James Talarico’s notable absence from the campaign trail, sharing a missing persons flyer…
Texas politics has never been accused of being subtle, but Paxton's team just took a page straight out of the community bulletin board at your local grocery store. The flyers are plastered across College Station, Fort Worth, and Dallas, all pointing out that Democratic nominee James Talarico is missing from the campaign trail. It's a simple jab, and frankly, it works because it's true.
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Texas Republican Senate nominee Ken Paxton mocked opponent James Talarico’s notable absence from the campaign trail, sharing a missing persons flyer featuring the Democratic nominee.
Paxton posted photos of missing posters that have popped up across Texas, including outside Kyle Field at Texas A&M University in College Station, in Fort Worth, and in Dallas. It comes after Talarico, who came down with the flu, reportedly canceled two campaign events and has not appeared publicly since Sept. 28.
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“🚨 MISSING: James Talarico. Missing posters are popping up across Texas as the search continues,” the caption reads. “LAST SEEN: 12 days ago. Texans everywhere are asking: where is James Talarico?”
The flyers feature the word “MISSING” at the top of the page. Under Talarico’s name, it reads: “Occupation: Radical Democrat Socialist.” The flyer states Talarico was “last seen” in New York City, and that the candidate’s current status was listed as “case open – whereabouts unknown.”
🚨 MISSING: James Talarico Missing posters are popping up across Texas as the search continues. LAST SEEN: 12 days ago. Texans everywhere are asking: where is James Talarico? pic.twitter.com/t6SZG92fge
The posters were an apparent jab at the Democratic Senate nominee’s decision to campaign and fundraise in New York ahead of the critical Senate race. Talarico’s decision to attend campaign events outside the Lone Star State drew backlash from critics.
President Donald Trump joined Paxton in calling out Talarico’s absence from the campaign trail.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, upon information and belief, James TalaFREAKo, who is running for the United States Senate in Texas, is MISSING IN ACTION!” Trump said in a post on Truth Social late Wednesday night. “No one has seen him for an extended period of time. Where is he? What is wrong with him? Bad rumors are coming out.”
Trump urged the two to debate, to which Talarico responded on Thursday on X, saying, “President Trump just said Ken Paxton should debate. I agree. Ball’s in your court [Paxton].”
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
Texas politics has never been accused of being subtle, but Paxton's team just took a page straight out of the community bulletin board at your local grocery store. The flyers are plastered across College Station, Fort Worth, and Dallas, all pointing out that Democratic nominee James Talarico is missing from the campaign trail. It's a simple jab, and frankly, it works because it's true.
You can call it a stunt or call it political theater, but the opposition research here is literally just a calendar. Talarico can't complain about being misrepresented when the evidence is pasted on telephone poles in three major Texas cities. If you're running for statewide office in the second-largest state in the country, voters expect to see you. Not your social media team, not your surrogates, but you. Hiding from the press and skipping events might be a strategy in a safely blue district, but you don't get to skip the fight and then ask Texas for the job.
We've seen this pattern before. A progressive candidate tries to run on national buzzwords and TikTok clips, hoping the ground game doesn't matter. But Texas is too big for that, and the Republican base here shows up. Paxton's flyers are tapping into a real frustration, not just scoring a cheap joke. The joke works because everyone understands the stakes. If Talarico can't handle a statewide campaign schedule against a well-known opponent, that tells you everything about how he'd handle the pressure of the office itself.
The Democrat's camp will call this negative campaigning, but it's actually the most honest thing in this election so far. It's putting a spotlight on a real problem, namely that one of the candidates is treating this race like a part-time hobby. Paxton isn't making up an attack; he's documenting a fact. At some point, Talarico is going to have to come out from hiding and explain to voters why he thinks he deserves their support if he won't even show up to ask for it. Until then, the flyers are just doing the job his campaign won't do.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.