Republican strategist Caroline Wren said Saturday that Texas Democrat Senate nominee James Talarico owes voters answers about his extended absence from the campaign trail, questioning whether he could handle the demands of the Senate.
“If you can’t handle the campaign trail, you sure as hell can’t handle the U.S. Senate. And that is the important point here,” Wren said.
Speaking with Breitbart News’s Washington bureau chief Matthew Boyle on Breitbart News Saturday, Wren challenged Talarico’s explanation for his time away and criticized reporters for failing to press him for more details after he returned to public campaigning Friday.
Talarico appeared at the Austin City Limits music festival Friday after his campaign said he had been recovering from the flu. His previous public appearance was a September 30 virtual event with the U.S. Hispanic Business Council, leaving nine days between those appearances, according to the Texas Tribune.
Wren focused on the longer stretch since his last in-person campaign appearance in Texas, which she placed at September 26. She argued that an absence during the closing weeks of a Senate race warranted more scrutiny.
“I’ve worked on a lot of campaigns, presidential campaigns, Senate campaigns. And the last two months, six weeks of a major national race like this, you are doing multiple campaign stops a day, like sick or not sick, rain, sleet, hurricane, anything,” she said. “That’s just the reality.”
Wren said Talarico appeared at a football game September 26 and had fundraisers scheduled in New York on September 28 and 29. She questioned how a September 29 evening fundraiser fit with his account of visiting urgent care in Dallas that night.
“I thought that was weird because I knew he had a fundraiser in New York on the 29th at 5:30 p.m. This is where I first started looking at this,” she said. “I’m confused how you could be at a 5:30 New York City, downtown New York City fundraiser, but also be at a Dallas emergency care facility.”
Spokesman JT Ennis told the New York Post that the candidate became ill after holding more than 100 public events and shaking tens of thousands of hands, and would return to campaigning over the weekend.
After Talarico appeared at the festival Friday, Ennis posted, “Hate to disappoint the conspiracy theorists, but James is still alive and meeting with voters at ACL today.”
Wren said Talarico’s return did not settle her concerns about his ability to handle the job. She argued that voters deserved answers about any health issue affecting his campaign.
“If you’re hiding a health issue, whether or not it’s a medical issue or a mental health issue, then it’s something that the voters of Texas deserve to know about before they make the decision on sending a U.S. senator to represent the state of Texas in Washington, D.C.,” she said.
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