He's back. We think. 

James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Texas, had been off the campaign trail for nearly two weeks — since September 26. My colleagues here at PJ Media have been writing at length about that. His campaign said he had the flu. Here's more on that from Matt Margolis: 

Talarico was last seen in Texas at a football game on Sept. 26. Invitations show New York City fundraisers with Robert De Niro on Sept. 28 and Sept. 29. Then, on Sept. 30, Talarico appeared by video at a Hispanic business event he was supposed to have attended in person, and said he had come down with the flu and visited a Dallas clinic. Wren concludes that account would put him in a Dallas medical clinic on the same night he was supposed to have been at a fundraiser in Manhattan. 

Critics say that timeline doesn't add up. No one has seen him since.  

Since then, there have been numerous calls to his campaign for some kind of "proof of life." I mean, flu or not, what kind of senatorial candidate goes missing for that long a month before the biggest election of his life? It's worth noting that Talarico has diabetes, which can make the flu a bit more complicated, but if that was the case, why was his campaign not more open and transparent about it?  

If I was running for a major political office and truly ill, I'd be sending pics out from my sickbed to show my future constituents just how honest I plan to be as your senator, not hiding away while my opponents play up my absence.  

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As time passed, rumors began to swirl. As Matt also reported earlier on Friday, Sara Gonzales at The Blaze, Spencer Pratt, and others claimed they heard unverified tips that Talarico had checked into a mental-health facility after having a full mental breakdown at the end of September.    

Just as these rumors hit their peak, Talarico has finally made a public appearance. On Friday, he was seen walking the grounds at the Austin City Limits Festival, talking and taking pictures with other festival-goers. Well, I hope he's not contagious.   

Here's the thing, and I'm going to rely on Matt's reporting again because he's been covering this story a lot closer than I have. Even the media has tried to help him. As Matt reported on Friday afternoon, "A local news outlet tried to get that proof, and it came up empty. Fox 7 Austin reporter Rudy Koski said the station offered the campaign a Zoom interview and explicitly framed it as a proof-of-life request."  

The campaign declined. If you have nothing to hide, that's just stupid. Here's Matt's take.   

Talarico could show up at a campaign event tonight, and that still wouldn’t explain the campaign’s bizarre behavior. Whatever the situation is, it’s not the flu. A man with the flu can sit in front of a laptop for five minutes. Talarico already proved that himself on Sept. 30, when he managed to record a video for the business event while supposedly sick, even though he didn’t look sick.

True. Even former Democrat strategist Dan Turrentine was skeptical.

"Talarico's team watched this take off yesterday," Turrentine said. "You're in a close race. Right? So whether it's true or not, whether you're on your deathbed or it's 'other' — right, as the conspiracy theories are kind of hinting there's something else. You're in a tight race; you have 25 days to go. You would get out last night with something, even if it's a photograph of the guy. That makes me nervous that it's Friday morning and there is still [nothing] other than one person saying, 'Nothing to see here.'"

In my opinion, this sudden appearance at this music festival raises more questions than answers. Either Talarico is hiding something or whoever is running his campaign is a complete and total idiot. Possibly, both things are true.