{"id":79687,"date":"2026-10-07T20:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/07\/ken-paxton-calls-out-james-talaricos-11-day-absence-at-trump-rally-prompting-response-from-campaign\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T20:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:55:14","slug":"ken-paxton-calls-out-james-talaricos-11-day-absence-at-trump-rally-prompting-response-from-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/07\/ken-paxton-calls-out-james-talaricos-11-day-absence-at-trump-rally-prompting-response-from-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Paxton calls out James Talarico&#8217;s 11-day absence at Trump rally, prompting response from campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton questioned Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico&#8217;s absence from the campaign trail during President Donald Trump&#8217;s rally in San Antonio Wednesday, prompting a response from his opponent&#8217;s campaign less than a month before the November midterm elections.<\/p>\n<p>Paxton led the crowd in chanting &#8220;Where is Talarico?&#8221; while asserting that the Democrat had not been seen campaigning in Texas for 11 days.<\/p>\n<p>Talarico&#8217;s campaign told Fox News Digital the Democrat has been sick with the flu and is expected to return to the campaign trail this weekend.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/paxton-vents-over-lack-campaign-control-dc-establishment-he-once-battled-comes-his-aid\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>PAXTON VENTS OVER LACK OF CAMPAIGN CONTROL AS DC ESTABLISHMENT HE ONCE BATTLED COMES TO HIS AID<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;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,&#8221; JT Ennis, a campaign spokesperson for Talarico, told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Ken Paxton has been ignoring Texans this entire campaign, and his priorities are clear: He doesn\u2019t answer to the people of this state. He answers to his billionaire megadonors and special interests.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The statement from Talarico campaign spokesperson JT Ennis also criticized Paxton&#8217;s campaign priorities, pushing back against the Republican&#8217;s remarks as the two candidates <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/fox-news-poll-its-lone-star-senate-showdown-between-talarico-paxton\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">compete for a U.S. Senate seat<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also questioned Talarico&#8217;s whereabouts during his remarks, repeatedly referencing the Democrat&#8217;s absence while campaigning on Paxton&#8217;s behalf.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/trump-linked-maga-inc-pours-10m-ken-paxton-texas-senate-race-james-talarico\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TRUMP-LINKED MAGA INC POURS $10M INTO KEN PAXTON&#8217;S TEXAS SENATE RACE AGAINST JAMES TALARICO<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The president suggested without evidence that Talarico had become sick after eating meat for political reasons, mocking the Democrat&#8217;s dietary preferences.<\/p>\n<p>Trump also criticized Talarico&#8217;s positions on immigration, public safety and education, while praising Paxton&#8217;s record as Texas attorney general and urging voters to support his Senate bid.<\/p>\n<p>The president emphasized the importance of <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/12-races-scramble-senate-battlefield-democrats-eye-comeback\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the Texas race<\/a> to Republicans&#8217; efforts to maintain control of Congress, warning supporters about the consequences of Democrats gaining seats in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/gop-fortress-under-threat-key-red-state-voters-decide-whether-falls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>MEET THE VOTERS WHO COULD BREAK THE GOP\u2019S DECADESLONG GRIP ON A REPUBLICAN STRONGHOLD<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Trump&#8217;s appearance in San Antonio was part of a broader effort to <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/democrats-build-midterm-momentum-republicans-still-drivers-seat-senate-majority-battle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mobilize Republican voters<\/a> ahead of the midterm elections. He urged attendees to participate in early voting, which begins Oct. 19 in Texas, or cast their ballots on Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>The exchange over Talarico&#8217;s whereabouts comes as the candidates enter the <a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.com\/politics\/shock-poll-talarico-ties-paxton-texas-senate-race-threatening-gop-stronghold\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">final weeks of the campaign<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton questioned Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico&#8217;s absence from the campaign trail during President Donald Trump&#8217;s rally in San Antonio Wednesday, prompting a response from his opponent&#8217;s campaign less than a month before the November midterm elections. Paxton led the crowd in chanting &#8220;Where is Talarico?&#8221; while asserting that the Democrat &#8230; <a title=\"Ken Paxton calls out James Talarico&#8217;s 11-day absence at Trump rally, prompting response from campaign\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/07\/ken-paxton-calls-out-james-talaricos-11-day-absence-at-trump-rally-prompting-response-from-campaign\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Ken Paxton calls out James Talarico&#8217;s 11-day absence at Trump rally, prompting response from campaign\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}