John Deaton, a Swansea attorney who has been a prominent advocate for cryptocurrency, is seriously considering running as a Republican in this year’s US Senate race against Democrat Elizabeth Warren, according to two GOP insiders with direct knowledge of his plans.
Jim Conroy, a key architect of former Republican Governor Charlie Baker’s political operation, has been consulting with Deaton and confirmed Wednesday that Deaton is taking a “serious look” at the race and will decide in the coming days. Deaton did not immediately return a Globe request for comment.
Should he enter the race, Deaton, 56, would become the first major GOP challenger for Warren in a contest that has looked sleepy since Massachusetts’ senior senator announced last year she was running for reelection. And Deaton’s profile — as a lawyer who has been a prominent voice in favor of cryptocurrency — would set up a sharp contrast with the progressive Democrat, who is one of Washington’s loudest crypto critics and most vocal voices for increased regulation. Deaton has been a critic of Warren on X, formerly known as Twitter, in attacks that suggest crypto regulation could be a major issue in any general election contest.
A native of Highland Park, Michigan, Deaton was the only member of his family to graduate high school and later attended college at Eastern Michigan University and law school at New England Law Boston, where he graduated in 1995, according to details provided by Conroy. Deaton enlisted in the US Marine Corps and has worked for decades as an attorney, representing asbestos victims at his own law firm in Rhode Island. He recently moved to Swansea, Mass., and is a cancer survivor and the father of three daughters.
After years of cases focused on asbestos and mesothelioma, Deaton became interested in cryptocurrency, and in 2021 filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Ripple Labs, one of the world’s most highly valued crypto companies. The SEC had accused Ripple of illegally selling more than $1 billion of digital currency to investors, litigation that came as part of a broad sweep of enforcement against the fast-moving and little-regulated industry. Deaton, who owned Ripple’s crypto token, known as “XRP,” argued he and other XRP holders should be permitted to intervene in the case.
“The industry needs to accept that good legislation and regulation is what is required, not no regulation,” Deaton told The New York Times that year. “Because right now it is like the Wild, Wild West, and you have different federal agencies fighting over which one has jurisdiction.”
Deaton is also the author of the book Food Stamp Warrior, a memoir published last year whose back cover says it documents his “fight for survival” “from brass knuckle beatdowns on the schoolyard to showdowns with the SEC.” He writes about the industry frequently on his website, “CryptoLaw,” and has contributed to cable news coverage on the subject.
Warren is the heavy favorite when facing reelection in Democratic-leaning Massachusetts, but Republicans, hopeful that the right candidate could topple her, argue she is not popular or present enough in the state. A survey last year from the MassINC Polling Group found that just 41 percent of Massachusetts residents view Warren favorably, a statistic that Republicans here have eagerly embraced. When she ran for president in 2020, Warren finished third in the Democratic primary in Massachusetts behind Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
For Republicans, perhaps more significant than the prospect of defeating Warren in November is the potential to tie her up with a competitive race in Massachusetts and prevent her from raising money around the country for other candidates and causes. Warren is a powerful fundraiser who has helped bring in checks for several of her Democratic US Senate colleagues, as well as Biden’s reelection campaign and abortion rights groups. She raised more than $850,000 for her reelection campaign in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Emma Platoff can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @emmaplatoff.