“James Talarico, the Texas Democratic nominee for Senate, on Sunday dismissed GOP conspiracy theories about his flu-induced absence from the campaign trail and sought to turn the tables,” MS NOW reports.Said Talarico: “I had the flu. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. It’s wild that someone can just post something on the internet and then the media just runs with it.”“He dismissed the brouhaha as ‘silly season in our politics’ and issued a fresh challenge to his GOP rival, Ken Paxton, who spent the better part of 10 days fueling wild speculation about Talarico’s whereabouts while the Democrat recovered from his illness.”He added: “He asked for proof of life from me. I’m asking proof of spine from him.”