After James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, spent more than a week with no campaign appearances because of what he and his aides described as a bad case of the flu, a false rumor circulated by conservatives exploded online.
By Sunday, a post on X claiming that Mr. Talarico had been at a mental health facility in Ohio — a story promoted by Republican allies of Mr. Talarico’s opponent, Ken Paxton — had been viewed millions of times. Then the Ohio facility took the remarkable step of publicly announcing on Sunday night that Mr. Talarico had in fact never been treated there.
“I’ve never even been to Ohio,” Mr. Talarico, who returned to the campaign trail on Friday, wrote in a post sharing the center’s statement. He called the theory “the craziest thing I’ve ever heard” in an interview with MS NOW.
The New York Times reviewed time-stamped images from a security camera at Mr. Talarico’s home, which were provided by his campaign on the condition they not be published for security reasons. The images showed Mr. Talarico at the home between Oct. 1 and Oct. 8.
The episode represented a wild stretch in the Texas Senate race — one of this year’s highest-profile, ugliest and most expensive contests and one that could help decide control of the upper chamber.
The furor over Mr. Talarico’s absence was extraordinary on several levels. It showed how mistrust of politicians and the mainstream news media, combined with online algorithms that incentivize outrageous theories, has created a Wild West of misinformation. It offered a lesson for Democrats: In such an era, it is politically risky for a candidate, even one too ill to campaign, to disappear for nine days.
And it showed how worried Texas Republicans are about Mr. Paxton’s prospects as Mr. Talarico continues to poll ahead of him, despite hundreds of millions of dollars in G.O.P. advertising. No Democrat has won a statewide election in Texas in more than three decades.
For the first few days, Mr. Talarico’s absence went largely unremarked upon. He appeared in person at a New York fund-raiser on Sept. 29 and the next day, looking ill, spoke virtually at an event, telling attendees that he had come down with the flu.
On Oct. 3, Mr. Talarico’s campaign posted a video of a February rally without clarifying that it was months old, which provoked speculation. (Mr. Talarico’s campaign noted that it regularly reposts social media videos.)
Mr. Paxton increasingly began to fan the flames. Last Tuesday, he promoted a report about Mr. Talarico’s cancellation of a campaign event. On Wednesday, he led supporters in a chant of “Where Is James Talarico?” at a rally with President Trump. And on Friday morning, Mr. Paxton announced a “tip line” for information about Mr. Talarico’s whereabouts.
Throughout it all, Mr. Talarico’s campaign insisted to reporters that he simply had the flu and dismissed rumors that something else might have happened. On Friday, Mr. Talarico reappeared, spending hours at a music festival in Austin, and then went to other public events on Saturday.
In a short interview with The Times, Mr. Talarico said that he had been sick with “a nasty case of the flu” and had been “home sick in bed.”
But that didn’t stop Mr. Paxton’s Republican allies, including Elon Musk and the Trump adviser Stephen Miller, from joining MAGA influencers in flooding social media with posts that questioned Mr. Talarico’s account.
By Sunday, the conservative internet was consumed by an unsubstantiated claim from a right-wing influencer that Mr. Talarico had flown to a mental health facility in Ohio, more than 1,000 miles away from Austin, for treatment of an undisclosed illness. One X post from a Republican consultant and fund-raiser, which pointed to public flight-tracker records about a private jet trip between Texas and Ohio, was viewed 1.8 million times — though the consultant provided no evidence linking the plane to Mr. Talarico.
And two posts from Sunday afternoon of an unverified audio recording, which claimed to provide evidence that a person named James Talarico had been discharged from the facility, were viewed more than eight million times. The claims fell apart hours later, but not before being amplified by Mr. Miller, Mr. Musk, the far-right activist Laura Loomer and a political adviser to Mr. Paxton. Several Republican state lawmakers in Texas also made posts sharing the audio or alluding to it.
“The Talarico campaign is not being honest about what’s happening,” wrote Mr. Musk, who has spent heavily to help Mr. Paxton.
JT Ennis, a spokesman for Mr. Talarico’s campaign, posted online that the claim was “a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory.”
Asked on Fox News whether he would accept a debate challenge extended by Mr. Talarico, Mr. Paxton shifted to talking about his rival’s absence.
“Two weeks is long time to be away with the flu, and it’s just a very strange time to disappear,” Mr. Paxton said on “The Big Weekend Show” on Sunday.
In the interview on Sunday with MS NOW, Mr. Talarico shot back that he had not heard from Mr. Paxton in 85 days about the debate he proposed.
“He has asked for proof of life for me,” Mr. Talarico said. “I’m asking for proof of spine from him.”
On Sunday night, when the Ohio mental health facility posted its statement saying Mr. Talarico had never been treated there, the news interrupted an unusual livestream on X. On the stream, a political adviser to Mr. Paxton, several journalists and others were publicly discussing the veracity of the audio recording, which was posted by Rhein Amacher, who describes himself on social media as a “right-wing provocateur.” At that point, more than 500 listeners were tuned in.
Tony Ortiz, a Paxton supporter and publisher of a right-leaning news outlet, confronted Mr. Amacher, calling his post “sloppy” and criticizing him for releasing the audio. Mr. Amacher had acknowledged on the livestream that he had offered the audio to two right-leaning news outlets but had been refused. Mr. Amacher did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mark Davis, a conservative talk radio host in Texas who has supported Mr. Paxton, wrote on X that the episode should be a lesson for “countless otherwise smart people who publicly accepted the story without question, like baby birds yearning for a worm.”
“Don’t let the fire of battle dull your normal instincts,” Mr. Davis wrote.
An intense, sometimes conspiratorial focus on candidates’ health is “the new normal” in American politics, according to Samuel Woolley, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies how technology manipulates opinion on the web. This has been fueled, he noted, by real concerns about the health of political figures like Mr. Trump, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Representative Thomas H. Kean Jr. of New Jersey.
“It seems that those spreading these rumors don’t care whether or not it’s real,” Dr. Woolley said. “The goal is just to get the story out there and to get people to talk about it.”
Indeed, some Republicans remain undeterred.
“Thanks for breaking the story,” Grant Cardone, a conservative commentator and financial influencer, told Mr. Amacher on the livestream. “Whether it’s true or not, people deserve to see the potential of this.”
J. David Goodman and Steven Lee Myers contributed reporting.
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