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“Ed Markey is MIA, rarely seen here and rarely delivering results in Washington, the place he’s called home since the 70s,” John Deaton said in a new campaign video.
After failing to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Marine veteran and lawyer John Deaton is now the first Republican to launch a run for Sen. Ed Markey’s seat, he announced at an event in Worcester Monday night.
“Our leaders should be doing their jobs to help Massachusetts families, but they’re all career politicians, and they’re failing,” Deaton says in a new campaign video, as Warren, Markey, and Markey primary challenger Rep. Seth Moulton span the screen.
Deaton, a cryptocurrency advocate and personal injury lawyer, was a political newcomer when he launched a bid against Warren last year. While she pulled comfortably ahead of him last November, Deaton made up some ground after two testy debates between the candidates.
Republican candidates for governor joined Deaton’s party at Worcester restaurant Off the Rails, according to an invite sent out by the state’s GOP party. Brian Shortsleeve and Mike Kennealy spoke, according to a commentator on X, while Mike Mintogue voiced his support for Deaton on the social media platform.
Markey announced his intent to run for another six-year term last year, meaning he would be 80 years old on Election Day in 2026. Deaton, who lives in Bolton and is 58, appears to draw attention to his relative youth in the campaign video, which features Deaton running and jumping to complete an obstacle course.
“Ed Markey is MIA, rarely seen here and rarely delivering results in Washington, the place he’s called home since the 70s,” Deaton says, alluding to Markey’s 37 years as a representative before he was elected to his current seat in 2013.
So far, Deaton is the only Republican to announce a run for the 2026 preliminary election. His message focused on addressing rising energy, housing, grocery prices, as well as his emphasis on his “independent voice” that echoed his previous campaign.
He previously ran as a moderate Republican who compared himself to former Gov. Charlie Baker, emphasizing his support for codifying Roe v. Wade into federal law.
Markey faces a primary challenge from North Shore Democrat Moulton. A recent poll shows Markey has a firm lead over Moulton, who drew considerable controversy over his comments about transgender athletes. Rep. Ayanna Pressley is reportedly considering jumping into the race as well, while Rep. Jack Auchincloss declined to run.
Deaton’s memoir “Food Stamp Warrior” tells his story of growing up poor in “the hood” near Detroit before joining the Marines and attending law school in Boston in 1992. When the book was written in 2023, he was living “smack dab in the middle of suburbia” in Rhode Island but moved to Massachusetts and launched his campaign against Warren.
In his book, Deaton writes he was raped as a child and learned to turn to therapy as an older adult.
“Life isn’t edited, and neither should my book,” he told Boston.com last year.
In the memoir, Deaton admits to statutory rape, saying he began a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old when he was 21. He also sold marijuana, drove drunk, and was involved in hundreds of physical fights, he wrote in the book.
“I started with nothing, a broken home, battling poverty and violence, living on food stamps,” Deaton said in the campaign video, “but when I joined the Marines, I learned it doesn’t matter where you come from, it matters how you do the job before you so I kept pushing.”
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