Talarico Campaign Denies Reports Linking Senate Candidate to Ohio Psychiatric Facility

A dispute over the whereabouts of Texas Senate candidate James Talarico during a nearly two-week absence from the campaign trail intensified over the weekend after independent journalists released audio of a phone call they say ties him to a psychiatric treatment center in Mason, Ohio.

Talarico’s campaign says the allegations are false and that the Democratic nominee was simply home in Austin with the flu. Spokesman JT Ennis said in a statement: “This is a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory. Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas, recovering from the flu.”

No medical records have been made public to confirm that account. Reporters had been stationed outside Talarico’s home for more than a week during his absence.

The recorded call

Independent journalists Nick Sortor and Rhein Amacher released a recording of a phone call to the Lindner Center of Hope, a psychiatric treatment facility in Mason, Ohio, which is in Hamilton County’s media market. On the call, a woman identifying herself as an employee of the facility was asked whether the center had information about James Talarico.

“It looks like he was just discharged this evening,” the woman said, according to the recording. “That’s why I don’t have it.”

Amacher asked whether he had reached the Lindner Center of Hope in Ohio, and the woman confirmed the facility’s location.

Sortor published the recording on X after he and Amacher said they had given Talarico’s campaign until 1 p.m. Eastern to respond to questions about his absence.

Flight records and earlier claims

The recording follows earlier claims by Republican strategist Caroline Wren and former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt that Talarico had spent time at a mental health facility. Wren also pointed to private flight-tracking records she said showed a trip between Austin and Hamilton, Ohio, near the Lindner Center, followed by a return flight to Texas shortly before Talarico appeared publicly Friday at the Austin City Limits music festival.

Neither the flight records nor the phone call constitute independent confirmation that Talarico was a patient at the facility. The woman on the recorded call was not identified by name, and the Lindner Center of Hope has not issued a public statement confirming or denying that Talarico was treated there.

The Talarico campaign has not released documentation, such as medical records, to support its account that he was home sick with the flu. As of Sunday, neither side had produced conclusive evidence settling the question of where the candidate spent nearly two weeks away from public view.