Rhode Island attorney John E. Deaton, a Republican, announced Feb. 19 that he will challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth A. Warren in her bid for her third term.
The East Providence attorney was one of the attorneys for Rhode Island Lawyers Weekly. 2023 Lawyers of the Year.
Deaton, who was born in Detroit and recently moved to Massachusetts, released a campaign video highlighting his difficult upbringing, his years in the Marine Corps as a judge advocate at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona, and his career as a personal injury lawyer. Representing victims of mesothelioma.
Deaton presented himself as a fighter for the middle and working classes.
โI fought for the little one. I took on the greedy corporations and the heartless insurance companies and I won,โ Deaton says in the video. "I'm running for the United States Senate to continue my life's mission of making a difference for the people who need it most."
Deaton, a virtual unknown in Massachusetts politics, faces a steep rise against Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor who twice won a Senate seat but came in third in Massachusetts in her 2020 bid for president. .
Warren currently has more than $3.9 million in her campaign account.
If elected in November, Deaton said he would take on the insurance industry and pharmaceutical companies to make health care more affordable, work across political parties to help solve the immigration crisis, fight inflation and push for limited the mandates of those whom he described as โcareer.โ politicians".
Deaton, 56, also directly criticized Warren, 74.
โElizabeth Warren, well, she promised to be an advocate for those in need. Instead, she lectures and plays politics and fails to do anything for Massachusetts,โ she said.
A spokesperson for Warren says she takes nothing for granted and โhas a strong record of helping working families and continues to fight hard for the people of Massachusetts.โ
Warren released a report on Feb. 20 detailing the more than $50 billion in federal support for Massachusetts that she said she secured during her Senate tenure, including funding for roads and bridges, including the Cape Cod bridges; $185 million in broadband financing for high-speed Internet access; and $270 million in grants for firefighters.
Deaton grew up in Detroit's Highland Park neighborhood, which he described as one of the poorest and most dangerous in the country. He said he was one of six siblings whose mother kept the family together with the help of food stamps, welfare and odd jobs.
He said his youth was marked by violence, physical and sexual abuse, and what he described as a survival mentality.
Deaton said he became the only member of his family to graduate from high school, went to college at Eastern Michigan University, where he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and underwent treatment while still in school. He was accepted to New England Law School in Boston in 1992.
While in law school, Deaton enlisted in the Marine Corps and medically retired in 2002 following a non-combat-related injury, and started his own law firm in Rhode Island.
As an attorney, Deaton said he has represented victims of mesothelioma, cancer and asbestos and has also delved into cryptocurrencies.
He said he was drawn to the technology as he remembered how his mother relied on what he described as โpredatory inner-city check cashing operationsโ and was intrigued by cryptocurrencies' ability to help the disadvantaged and unbanked. .
Warren has been a prominent supporter of regulating cryptocurrencies, calling them "the tool of choice" for money launderers and other criminals.
