Deaton pitches himself as independent voice

Republican U.S. Senate candidate John Deaton pitched himself as an independent voice for Massachusetts during an hour-long interview Thursday with six Greater Boston nonprofit news organizations. He also criticized incumbent Sen. Ed Markey’s policy proposals as little more than slogans and outlined an affordability agenda centered on housing, energy and health care.

Deaton, who unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Elizabeth Warren in 2024, met with reporters from Brookline.News, Cambridge Day, the Belmont Voice, Your Arlington, the Lexington Observer and the Waltham Times at the Village Works in Brookline.

Raised by a single mother who relied on public assistance in Highland Park, Mich., Deaton later attended law school in Boston, served in the Marine Corps and spent more than two decades representing asbestos victims. His 2023 memoir, “Food Stamp Warrior,” recounts his journey out of poverty.

Deaton said that though he has never voted for President Donald Trump and insists he doesn’t align with MAGA, he would be willing to work with the president, instead of antagonizing him at every turn. He said this would put him in a stronger position to advance Massachusetts’ interests in Washington than Markey.

“We’d actually give Massachusetts a real, true, independent voice in the Senate. It’s a voice I think that we haven’t had,” Deaton said. “If you have someone who says, ‘I don’t care about the party politics, just what’s good for Massachusetts and America,’ then you would actually have a lot of sway,” he added, likening himself to former U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative West Virginia Democrat, as a potential key bipartisan deal maker.

Housing and energy

Asked how he would fulfill his proposal to build 5 million homes nationwide over five years, Deaton outlined a plan to open federal and state land to development, streamline permitting and zoning restrictions, and expand access to federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

He also argued that Massachusetts’ high energy costs are a major obstacle to housing affordability, criticizing state clean-energy requirements that he said make housing developments more expensive, and advocating expanding natural gas infrastructure and investing in nuclear energy to bring down electricity costs.

“These green energy mandates are crushing Massachusetts. Everyone takes housing and energy separate as issues; they’re combined,” Deaton said.

To overcome local opposition to new housing, Deaton proposed tying federal funding to municipal compliance with housing laws. He argued that this illustrated why the U.S. Senate race is the most important election in Massachusetts: A senator could direct federal funding straight to municipalities, bypassing the Democratic supermajority on Beacon Hill that could override a Republican governor’s vetoes.

“You bypass Beacon Hill if you can get community development grants that go straight from the federal government to the city of Springfield, to the city of Cambridge or wherever,” Deaton said. Otherwise, “You get this $250 million community development grant, but you must be in compliance with … whatever housing laws that have been passed.”

Health care

Asked how he would address rising health care costs, Deaton began by criticizing the Affordable Care Act, arguing that it actually made health care less affordable by allowing a handful of large insurance companies to dominate the industry from factory to pharmacy.

“We need a Teddy Roosevelt-style revolution in this country, especially when it comes to health care,” Deaton said. “We have three vertically integrated insurance companies that control over 90% of all our healthcare with zero transparency. We’ve got three PBMs, pharmacy benefit managers, that control 85% of [the processing of] every prescription drug in this country.”

Deaton proposed using federal antitrust laws to break up major insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, alongside greater transparency in medical and prescription drug pricing, to increase competition and lower costs.

He contrasted his approach with Markey’s support for Medicare for All, which he dismissed as an unrealistic campaign promise unlikely to pass Congress.

“Even if you believe Medicare for All is eventually where we should go … it’s not going to happen in Ed Markey’s lifetime. It’s not going to happen in the next six years,” Deaton said.

At the same time, Deaton criticized Republicans who have spent years opposing the Affordable Care Act without presenting an alternative, while arguing that his own proposals could attract bipartisan support.

“I’m someone who believes every American citizen has an absolute inalienable human right to have access to affordable health care,” he said.

Proposition 2½ and municipal finances

Asked about his opposition to changing Proposition 2½, the state law limiting annual property tax increases, Deaton argued that Massachusetts municipalities need to rein in spending rather than repeatedly asking residents to approve tax increases.

“At some point, you got to do what every household in America does, which is live within your means,” instead of spending more and expecting taxpayers to oblige” Deaton said.

Pressed on his ability to influence state law as a U.S. senator, Deaton pointed to federal grants, earmarks and matching funds. He also reiterated his support for a state spending audit, arguing that greater transparency would help him secure additional federal funding.

Cryptocurrency

Deaton rejected his reputation as a “cryptocurrency attorney,” citing his decades representing asbestos victims. He traced his interest in Bitcoin to his childhood experience of poverty and his mother’s struggles with costly bank fees and check-cashing services.

“99% of crypto is garbage. Complete utter garbage. The Trump coin, garbage. Melania coin, garbage. I don’t believe in meme coins. Don’t believe in NFTs,” Deaton said, distinguishing those investments from Bitcoin and stablecoins, which he argued offer practical financial benefits.

Deaton called for stronger consumer protections and tougher penalties for cryptocurrency fraud, criticizing both parties’ approaches to regulation. He also argued that elected officials should be prohibited from issuing their own meme coins because of potential conflicts of interest.

Immigration

On his proposed immigration reforms, Deaton characterized Markey’s call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement as another unrealistic campaign slogan. He said he opposes abolishing ICE but wants stricter training requirements and body cameras for its agents.

“I don’t support masked men snatching people off the streets, but I also think that Governor Healey and [Boston mayor] Michelle Wu bear responsibility,” Deaton said, arguing that greater cooperation between local and federal authorities as was the case under the Obama Administration, would allow ICE to make arrests at correctional facilities rather than in public places.

At the same time, Deaton maintained that immigration enforcement remains necessary. “Deportation is a part of immigration policy,” he said, proposing to expand legal immigration while also tightening asylum procedures and ending sanctuary city policies.

Federal research funding

To protect federal research funding for Harvard, MIT and Massachusetts’ biotechnology industry amid cuts by the Trump administration, Deaton said the state needs a senator willing to negotiate with the president rather than continually confront him.

“I wished our federal delegation would take a chapter out of the Mamdani book on how to deal with Trump,” Deaton said, referring to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his conciliatory approach to the president, while criticizing Markey and his fellow Democrat and former primary opponent Seth Moulton for competing over who’s most opposed to Trump, rather than pursuing a working relationship with the White House.

Deaton said the issue was personal to him: His 24-year-old daughter, who has a master’s degree in neuroscience, is working in a laboratory in London. He said she wants to return to Massachusetts but has struggled to find opportunities because of research funding cuts.

“If Moulton and Markey’s whole message is, ‘I’m going to fight Trump,’ … instead of ‘I’m going to go fight for Massachusetts,’ then [Trump and his administration] are never going to be receptive to it,” Deaton said.

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