John Deaton, the Republican challenger seeking to unseat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said Monday he would be willing to break with the GOP on certain issues or switch his party registration.
“I’ve been a Democrat. I’ve been a Republican, I’ve been an independent,” said Deaton, noting that he does not support former President Donald Trump’s bid for a second term in the White House.
The former U.S. Marine and cryptocurrency attorney said instead of following the party line, he would only apply one test when considering legislation on the floor of the U.S. Senate: “Will it be good for Massachusetts and America?”
“And that’s the thing that we need in the Senate: We need an independent voice,” Deaton said when asked what he could do if the GOP were to block a U.S. Supreme Court nominee from consideration as was the case with now U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland was nominated to the nation’s high court by former President Barack Obama in March 2016. Deaton said he would change parties in that case and added he would also switch if a U.S. Senate with seats evenly split among Democrats and Republicans were to consider a federal abortion ban.
Deaton criticized Warren, labeling her a hyper-partisan person who is more “loyal to the Democratic Party and her agenda and her own ambitions” than to the commonwealth. He said that was evidenced, in his view, by her failure to criticize Gov. Maura Healey over the closure of a pair of Steward Health Care hospitals as the company undergoes bankruptcy proceedings.
His comments came as part of an appearance on Boston Public Radio and suggest comfort with a brand of national politics that rejects strict party alignment and deference to party brass. It is a brand that has been embraced by a number of Republicans who have publicly broken with the party now guided by Trump. In the last year, several GOP senators have refuted Trump on federal rate cuts, providing aid to Ukraine, tariffs on imported goods and, in the U.S. House, a potential government shutdown over a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote.
Several senators, including Susan Collins of Maine and Mitt Romney of Utah, have also publicly indicated they will not vote for Trump in 2024.
Deaton said he voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 election and intended to write-in former Ohio Gov. John Kasich in 2016 before an unexplained “mistake” intercepted his vote.
A recent poll from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center shows Warren enjoying a double-digit lead over Deaton, with slightly more than a month before the election.
Deaton also said that if given a hypothetical chance to choose between outgoing Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, he would be open to voting for either.
“Those are two equal evils to me,” he said. Later, when pressed by Jim Braude to answer, Deaton said he would have discussions with both teams to learn more about their agendas, and base his decision off that.
Monday’s appearance was Deaton’s first appearance on GBH News since winning the Sept. 3 primary. Both Warren and Deaton have agreed to two debates next month, including one sponsored by New England Public Media and GBH. Deaton noted during his segment he would’ve liked several more.
According to federal campaign tracking, at last check in mid-August, Deaton had nearly $2 million in the bank, with most of it coming geographically from Massachusetts and most of it coming from contributions of $200 or less.
Warren, by contrast, had more than $19 million in the bank during the same period.
