John Deaton cinches Republican nomination with $1.3M in crypto support

John Deaton came out on top in a three-way Republican primary Tuesday night, positioning the cryptocurrency advocate and attorney to take on incumbent Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren in November.

“Tomorrow, we begin the next phase of the campaign — an effort that will hold Elizabeth Warren accountable for her failures on the border, the unaffordable cost of supporting a family, a broken healthcare system, abandoning our ally Israel and restoring faith in our politics,” Deaton said in a statement Tuesday evening.

Deaton received almost two-thirds of votes in Tuesday’s primary, latest vote counts show. He also beat his opponents when it came to funding. The Deaton campaign, as of mid-August, had raised a total of $1.7 million, $1 million of which was a loan from Deaton himself.

Industrial engineer Robert Antonellis — who was Deaton’s runner-up in the primary with 26% of votes — had raised $46,449 for his campaign as of mid-August, per Federal Election Commission filings. About half of this amount was from a personal loan from Antonellis.

Polling data for the Warren vs. Deaton race is not yet available, but Warren has historically performed well against Republican opponents. In 2012, she won her seat by defeating incumbent GOP Sen. Scott Brown with 53% of the vote. In her most recent election in 2018, she secured re-election by a 60%-36% margin against Republican Geoff Diehl.

While the topic of crypto in the presidential election has so far been one-sided, the race for Massachusetts’ US Senate seat now includes two candidates with a track record in digital asset policy.

Warren last session introduced the “Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act Of 2022,” a bill that would reclassify crypto companies, including wallet providers and miners, as money services businesses. She re-introduced the legislation in December 2023, although the bill has not yet made it to the floor for a vote.

In December 2023, Warren penned a letter to crypto exchange Coinbase and lobby groups Coin Center and the Blockchain Association, accusing the organizations of hiring ex-government officials in an attempt to “undermine” digital asset regulation progress in Washington.

Deaton, on the other hand, emerged as somewhat of a hero in the crypto industry — at least for Ripple fans — in 2021 when he filed a motion to intervene on behalf of thousands of XRP holders in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Ripple, arguing that their interests were not being represented in the case. Deaton also owned XRP.

Ripple later donated $1 million to the Commonwealth Unity Fund, a super political action committee (PAC) also backed by Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss. Commonwealth Unity Fund has spent around $1.3 million on pro-Deaton efforts as of early August, FEC records show.

Other pro-crypto PACs Fairshake and Defend American Jobs have so far not supported Deaton.

While Deaton does not have a formal crypto policy plan on his website, his campaign has been accepting cryptocurrency donations since March.

Deaton and Warren do not yet have a debate scheduled, but Deaton said on Tuesday he looks forward to the opportunity to address the Senator on stage.

A modified version of this article first appeared in the daily On the Margin newsletter. Subscribe here so you don’t miss tomorrow’s edition.

Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Blockworks Daily: Unpacking crypto and the markets.
Empire: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.
Forward Guidance: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.
0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox.
Lightspeed: All things Solana.
The Drop: Apps, games, memes and more.
Supply Shock: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.