Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Pro-Crypto Opponent, John Deaton, Has a Plan to Beat Her

Defeating U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a national hero in progressive circles, seems a stretch for a relatively little-known Republican in the liberal bastion of Massachusetts. But candidate John Deaton, known among crypto fans for his legal advocacy, says it can be done by leveraging the concerns of people in that state.

Deaton, who Warren has already attacked as a tool of crypto billionaires, said the second-term senator isn’t as popular at home as elsewhere and that Massachusetts’ cost of living and immigration problems are worrying voters. From his end, he said the race will come down to whether his campaign can raise enough money to compete, whether he can get his message out and how hard he works between now and the November vote.

Warren won in her last race six years ago by a colossal 24 percentage points. Her approval rating, according to University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB polling earlier this year, has coasted at a steady 54%, with a 4.4% margin of error. That poll in May showed respondents favored Warren in a head-to-head matchup with Deaton at 47% to 24%, though that was before he won the Republican primary with almost two thirds of the vote.

“This race is winnable,” Deaton said in an interview with CoinDesk. “I believe that we’re going to be pleasantly surprised at how competitive this race is going to be.”

Despite the headlines he’s drawn for his pro-bono efforts to weigh in with the courts on such crypto disputes as Ripple’s existential fight with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or Coinbase Inc.’s similar battle, Deaton is more known as a lawyer representing people harmed by asbestos. He served as a Marine and wrote a book in 2023, “Food Stamp Warrior.” Because of his interest in crypto over the years, he said, about 80% of his net worth is in bitcoin.

While Warren has focused on Deaton’s connections to the digital assets industry, he responds by asking why she’s so focused on crypto when there are much more pressing issues.

“I’ve been calling Sen. Warren the crypto candidate,” he said. “Why did the senior senator from Massachusetts wake up one day and say, ‘You know what, I’m going to announce my reelection for a third term, and I’m going to focus on building an anti crypto army’?”

He says he’s not a supporter of former President Donald Trump, putting him in a minority among Republican candidates nationwide. And when asked about advocacy of crypto on the presidential campaign trail, Deaton said that people should be cautious of pandering during elections.

“President Trump certainly has said things that the industry loves to hear, that America is going to be the crypto capital of the world,” Deaton said. “I’m not saying that he doesn’t mean it. I’m just saying that we all need to focus on, I believe, voting for who the best candidate is in each race.”

Deaton calls himself a common-sense centrist. He flags inflation, opioid addiction and immigration’s drain on his state’s resources as issues worthy of attention.

“Doesn’t matter to me who the president is,” he said. “If it’s good for Massachesetts and America, I’m all in.”

So far, high-profile Warren is absolutely dominant in the money race. She’s amassed $19 million in this race, according to the latest Federal Election Commission data. Deaton hadn’t yet cleared $2 million, and $1 million of that was from his own pocket. His only advantage to date is the outside money making independent advertising buys – about $1.3 million worth at last count, paid for by prominent crypto interests.

That was from a political action committee, the Commonwealth Unity Fund, whose very existence suggests there may be a crypto industry disagreement on what to do about Deaton’s campaign. The Deaton-devoted super PAC is backed by crypto names including Ripple Labs, the Winklevoss brothers (Tyler and Cameron) and Phil Potter, a former Bitfinex and Tether executive. All of them had a role in standing up and funding the industry’s major campaign-finance effort, the Fairshake PAC and its affiliates. But Fairshake hasn’t weighed in for Deaton.

Fairshake spent $10 million just to defeat a Senate candidate in California the organizers thought would behave like Warren in the Senate, and the affiliated PACs have spent millions more against congressional candidates endorsed by her. But so far, Fairshake has remained on the sidelines in the actual race to oppose Warren directly. Spokesman Josh Vlasto declined to comment on that.

“I need to raise as much money as I can to get the name recognition up,” Deaton said. “The crypto world might know John Deaton in Massachusetts … but the regular population doesn’t.”

If Deaton does get elected to the Senate, he has a fantasy involving crypto industry adversary Gary Gensler, the SEC chair: “Before Gary Gensler resigns or leaves, that I get to cross-examine him,” he said. “I can assure you that’ll be fun.”