John Deaton, a Republican lawyer and Marine Corps veteran from Bolton, won the U.S. Senate primary in Massachusetts on Tuesday and will face veteran Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren in November.
Deaton, a personal injury lawyer and cryptocurrency advocate who moved to Massachusetts from Rhode Island last year, faced off in the primary against Quincy City Councilman Ian Cain, Massachusetts' first openly black and gay city councilman, and Bob Antonellis, an engineer and political newcomer from Medford.
Deaton, 56, has not said whether he will vote for Donald Trump for president. Antonellis was the only candidate in the historically Democratic state to voice his support for the top candidate.
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WOBURN, MASSACHUSETTS – APRIL 12: Republican Senate candidate John Deaton poses for a portrait (Photo by Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) (Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Mr. Deaton was far better funded than the other two candidates, thanks to a $1 million campaign loan: He outspent Mr. Cain more than twice as much, with $975,000 at the end of June, according to Federal Election Commission records, while Mr. Cain had about $22,000 left in his campaign coffers.
Deaton has often spoken about growing up in a low-income family in Detroit's Highland Park neighborhood, plagued by violence and poverty, watching a burglar stab his mother and having a gun pressed against his mouth on his first day of high school.
He said he broke the cycle of poverty by working while attending college and law school, then enlisting in the Marines and spending seven years as a special assistant U.S. attorney in Yuma, Arizona, fighting drug cartels in the 1990s.
Deaton said he has represented injured workers in legal battles against “corporations and insurance companies” for the past 22 years.
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In the general election, three Republicans challenged Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. (Reuters/Mike Seeger)
Massachusetts has not elected a Republican to statewide office since Gov. Charlie Baker, a moderate Republican, left the governor's mansion in January 2023. Polls suggest Warren, a former Republican, is likely to retain her seat in November.
Massachusetts Republicans have fielded challengers to only Warren and two other incumbent members of the House, Democrats Stephen Lynch and Bill Keating. Seven other Massachusetts Democrats who did not face challengers in the primary are expected to win in the general election.
Warren fought a tough election campaign, defeating Republican incumbent Scott Brown in 2012. She won the state with more than 60% of the vote in 2018, and President Biden won it in 2020 with 66% of the vote.
Deaton has focused on the immigration crisis and Warren's “stepping down.”
“Because of failed policies and partisanship from career politicians like Elizabeth Warren, every state is now a border state and Massachusetts is paying the price,” Deaton said in a campaign video.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) questions Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen during a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jacqueline Martin, File)
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis famously flew migrants to Martha's Vineyard, a wealthy Massachusetts enclave, in 2022.
Deaton wrote to X on Monday that Warren is “focused on national profile and special interests” rather than spending time in her local community. “That will hurt her on November 5th.”
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All three candidates made the border issue a central part of their campaigns and denounced states' sanctuary policies.
Antonellis said he would work to revoke Massachusetts' sanctuary state designation, saying the state is “destroying communities across the country.” He has also pushed for a ban on offshore and onshore wind farms and has come under fire for claiming the 9/11 terrorist attacks were an inside job.
“Washington is systematically, even satanically, stealing our freedoms and rights,” Antonellis said. Written On his campaign website, he wrote: “9/11 was an 'inside job,' but I want to talk more about Harvard's role in getting American patriots to support the PATRIOT Act, which would have made it legal to strip Americans nearly naked and spy on everyone just to board an airplane.”
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