An Ohio mental health facility discharged Texas State Rep. James Talarico (D-50th District), the Democrat Party's nominee for U.S. Senate, earlier this week, according to bombshell audio that independent journalist Nick Sortor released on Sunday.
The recording answers a question that has hung over the Texas Senate race for days. Talarico went two weeks without an in-person campaign event in the state, with the general election less than a month away. His campaign claimed he was recovering from the flu, an explanation that never held up. Talarico has diabetes, which can complicate the flu, but the campaign never disclosed that as an explanation.
Sortor and Rhein Amacher ran out of patience on Sunday morning. They gave Talarico until 1 p.m. ET to explain his absence and promised to release the details themselves if he stayed quiet.
The deadline passed, and Sortor and Amacher dropped the audio.
On the call, Amacher asks a woman who answers the phone at the Lindner Center of Hope whether the facility has anything for James Talarico.
"It looks like he was just discharged this evening," the employee says after a long pause. "That's why I don't have it."
Amacher then asked to confirm he had the correct place, and the employee did in fact confirm he was speaking to the Lindner Center of Hope in Mason, Ohio.
🚨 BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Ohio mental hospital CONFIRMS James Talarico was discharged from the facility earlier this week The “flu” thing was a BIG FAT LIE Following reporting by @SaraGonzalesTX and @CarolineWren, a hospital employee told @RheinAmacher and I that Talarico had in fact been a patient at the Lindner Center of Hope near Cincinnati, Ohio, which specializes in around-the-clock mental health treatment. While I sympathize with those dealing with mental health crises, this man is CLEARLY not suited to become a US Senator representing over 30 MILLION TEXANS. The job doesn’t get easier after being elected — it only gets MORE stressful. And Talarico clearly can’t handle it. I pray he gets the help he needs, but Texans need a real representative they can rely on.
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 11, 2026
The recording doesn't identify the employee.
Amacher posted screenshots showing his calls to the Lindner Center, a total of three, one six minutes long, and two others lasting two minutes.
Here is my initial phone call attempt, which was unsuccessful because I was unable to provide the required verification code. https://t.co/hTg4jCB3Om
— Rhein Amacher (@RheinAmacher) October 11, 2026
He described the exchange on X. "During my recorded call, an individual identifying themselves as a female facility employee reportedly stated that Talarico was no longer a patient and had been discharged within the previous 24–48 hours," he wrote.
🚨𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: My independent investigation into @JamesTalarico follows the initial reporting by @SaraGonzales and @CarolineWren concerning a reported private aircraft charter traveling from Hamilton, Ohio, to Austin, TX ➡️ Dallas, TX ➡️ Austin, TX. I personally contacted @LindnerCtrHope in Mason, Ohio, to determine whether Talarico was or had previously been a patient. During my recorded call, an individual identifying themselves as a female facility employee reportedly stated that Talarico was no longer a patient and had been discharged within the previous 24–48 hours. Texans deserve accurate, independently verified information about candidates seeking to represent them in the U.S. Senate. The stakes are too high for speculation.
— Rhein Amacher (@RheinAmacher) October 11, 2026
Naturally, critics raised privacy law right away. Sortor says he covered that base before publishing. "I was on the phone with one of my attorneys at literally 3:42 am ensuring we were committing no HIPAA violations," he wrote.
@EliciaBrand @SaraGonzalesTX @CarolineWren @RheinAmacher I was on the phone with one of my attorneys at literally 3:42 am ensuring we were committing no HIPAA violations. Get you an attorney like @realTJRoberts who answers the phone at 3 am 🤣 https://t.co/SgwbzQLjy6
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 11, 2026
Last week, GOP strategist Caroline Wren said her Texas sources had told her the same story. "I'm hearing that he checked himself into a mental institution, that he had a full-blown mental breakdown sometime around, I guess, September 29th or September 30th," she said.
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Former Los Angeles mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt heard it too. "My sources are telling me Talarico is in a mental health facility," he wrote on X. "His campaign has stopped actively planning events in the vital homestretch of the campaign."
Wren later posted flight tracker screenshots on X.
What are the chances that a private plane took off from Austin and flew to tiny Hamilton airport in Ohio which is 20 mins from the Lindner Center, a private inpatient mental health treatment facility, and then turned around and flew back to Austin landing yesterday morning at 10:24am right before James Talarico magically reappears at the Austin City Limits music festival that afternoon? Lindner Center also happens to be the same facility that Talarico’s good friend and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo spent 7 weeks in when she had a mental breakdown 3 years ago… So many coincidences!
— Caroline Wren (@CarolineWren) October 10, 2026
Plenty of Americans seek treatment, and nobody should hold that against them. But a man asking Texans for a seat in the U.S. Senate owes them the truth about whether he's up to the job. If Talarico can’t handle a campaign without seeking mental health treatment, he can’t handle being a U.S. senator.
Editor’s Note: The 2026 Midterms will determine the fate of President Trump’s America First agenda. Republicans must maintain control of both chambers of Congress.
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