Talarico was at home in Texas during campaign trail absence, photos indicate

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico’s campaign shared security camera footage with CBS News that appears to show Talarico at his home in Texas for the first eight days of this month — pushing back on claims that Talarico was hiding the reasons for his disappearance.

Talarico was absent from the campaign trail for almost two weeks, saying he caught a bad case of the flu. The disappearance drew criticism and speculation from his Republican opponent, Ken Paxton.

But on Monday, Talarico’s campaign shared a set of security camera images that they say show the state lawmaker and Democratic candidate at his home in Texas every day from Oct. 1 to Oct. 8, one day before Talarico made a public appearance.

The eight timestamped images — which include watermarks from home security camera company SimpliSafe — appeared to have been taken from a camera in the backyard of Talarico’s house in the state capital of Austin. CBS News matched features in the backyard to recent satellite imagery of Talarico’s address. Though low resolution, the photos show a male figure with brown hair at various times of day and wearing different outfits.

The images were first reported by The New York Times.

The mental health facility at the center of the conspiracy theories, Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio, also wrote on social media that Talarico “has never received treatment” there.

Talarico campaign spokesman J.T. Ennis said in a statement that claims Talarico was elsewhere were “a lie designed to promote a pathetic conspiracy theory.”

“Last week James Talarico was home in Austin, Texas recovering from the flu,” Ennis said.