James Talarico, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Texas, has kept his girlfriend, Brianna Menard, largely out of the public eye. Menard is a political director at the Texas Medical Association and once worked as his chief of staff.
Menard, 30, has been linked online to Michel Branamour Menard, the Canadian-born fur trader who founded the city of Galveston and signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836.
Interest in Talarico's private life has grown as the race between the Austin state representative and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton enters its final weeks. The outcome could help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Democrats have not won a Senate race in Texas since 1988.
Who Is Brianna Menard?
A native Texan, Menard studied government at the University of Texas at Austin and has spent nearly a decade working in the Texas legislature.
Before joining the Texas Medical Association, she served as executive director of the Texas House's Early Childhood Caucus, a bipartisan group focused on early learning, child care access, workforce development and health care affordability.
She is now director of TEXPAC and Political Education at the Texas Medical Association, according to her biography on the PAC's website. Founded in 1962, TEXPAC is a bipartisan political committee that supports candidates it considers friendly to medicine at the state and federal levels. The organization says it has more than 5,000 member physicians.
The New York Post first identified Menard in May, shortly after Ken Paxton defeated Senator John Cornyn in the Republican runoff. The report focused on her description of herself as a committed vegan, which Republicans quickly folded into their "Tofu Talarico" attacks. Talarico's campaign has said he is not a vegan.
"James is not and never has been a vegan, much to his girlfriend's chagrin," campaign spokesman JT Ennis said in May.
Newsweek reached out to Talarico's campaign for comment Wednesday.
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Did Brianna Menard and James Talarico Work Together?
Menard was Talarico's chief of staff at the Texas House when they met in 2022, according to the Post. The two did not begin dating until 2023, the outlet reported. She had also worked as chief of staff for another Democratic member of the Texas House.
Before her name was public, Talarico said on the Jamie Kern Lima podcast that he was keeping her out of the campaign: "What I'm trying to do is protect her and my family and my friends from the impacts of this race."
Conservative outlets have since scrutinized his past relationships with Capitol staffers. In June, Texas Scorecard reported that a second former legislative staffer had confirmed a past romantic relationship with Talarico. That staffer said in a statement that the relationship ended five years ago and declined to comment further.
James Talarico Vs. Ken Paxton: What Latest Polls Show
Recent polls show Talarico narrowly ahead of Paxton.
A YouGov poll released last week found Talarico ahead 50 percent to 44 percent, powered by younger voters. Roughly two-thirds of voters ages 18 to 29 backed the Democrat, while voters 65 and older favored Paxton 55 percent to 38 percent. Few voters on either side said they might switch.
A Fox News poll conducted September 24 to 28 had Talarico at 51 percent and Paxton at 49 percent among likely voters, within the survey's 3-point margin of error. More than half of respondents said they worried Talarico was too liberal, while 51 percent said Paxton was too close to President Donald Trump.
Earlier polls also had Talarico ahead. A Texas Pulse survey for Texas A&M's Bush School put Talarico ahead 47 percent to 43 percent, and Texas Public Opinion Research, a group led by a Democratic strategist, found him up 45 percent to 40 percent in July. Paxton's campaign has dismissed the numbers, saying the only poll that matters is on Election Day.
Will There Be a Texas Senate Race Debate?
No debate is scheduled, and Election Day is less than three weeks away.
In July, Talarico said he had accepted invitations for three televised debates from Texas broadcasters, including Nexstar, KXAN and WFAA. Paxton's campaign said he would take part. "Of course we are going to debate James Talarico," senior adviser Nick Maddux said. The campaign has not committed to a host since. WFAA reported that Paxton's team stopped responding to the station after August 24.
Talarico later accepted a CNN invitation, which the Paxton campaign rejected, and then offered to debate on Fox News with anchor Bret Baier moderating. He told CBS Austin he was "still holding out hope that Ken Paxton will accept an invitation to debate, even if it's on Fox News."
After Trump said last week that Talarico should take the debate stage against Paxton, Talarico accepted the challenge. Paxton has not said whether he will take part.
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Was James Talarico Missing? GOP Claims Explained
His campaign says he was home sick with the flu for roughly two weeks in late September and early October.
His last public in-person event in Texas was on September 26, according to NBC News. He disclosed the illness on September 30, when he appeared by video at a U.S. Hispanic Business Council event in Edinburg and apologized for not attending in person. Talarico has Type 1 diabetes, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says raises the risk of serious flu complications.
Republicans questioned that explanation. At an October 7 rally in San Antonio, Paxton led the crowd in a chant of "Where is James Talarico?" Trump later called him "MISSING IN ACTION" on Truth Social, and Paxton's campaign circulated mock missing posters and demanded "proof of life."
Right-wing commentators, including Spencer Pratt, also spread unverified claims that Talarico was in a mental health facility. The Lindner Center of HOPE in Ohio publicly denied he had ever been a patient there.
Talarico returned to the trail on October 9, greeting voters at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. "I had the flu," he told MS NOW, calling the rumors "the craziest thing I've ever heard."
Why the Texas Senate Race Matters in 2026 Midterms
Democrats have not won a statewide race in Texas since 1994. A Talarico win in the open seat, vacated when Paxton ousted Cornyn in the primary, would cut sharply into the Republican path to holding the Senate majority.
National Republicans have been campaigning in the state for weeks. Vance was there Tuesday, telling voters in East Texas that Talarico was "a threat to your way of life." Earlier in the day, when asked by a reporter about a past remark that he would not want to see Talarico's internet search history, Vance pointed to what he called the Democrat's "weird focus on transgender kids and drag queens."
The attacks drew criticism from Democrats. Illinois Representative Sean Casten accused Republican leaders on X of "playground-level homophobia."
Talarico's numbers have outpaced Democrat Beto O'Rourke's at this stage of the 2018 race. O'Rourke lost to Cruz by about 2.6 points that year. No Democrat has won statewide in Texas since 1994.
The Democrats also hold a wide fundraising edge. He has raised more than $70 million since launching his campaign, compared with roughly $16.8 million for Paxton. On Thursday, his campaign announced a record-breaking $64 million fundraising haul for the third quarter of 2026.
Trump's super PAC, MAGA Inc., has committed at least $10 million to help Paxton and close the gap.
Early voting in Texas begins October 19. Election Day is November 3.
Newsweek’s reporters and editors used Martyn, our AI assistant, to produce this story. Learn more about Martyn here. Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon and Gray R. Thomas