Positioning himself as a non-partisan alternative to Democratic U.S Senator Elizabeth Warren in a contest for one of the Bay State’s two U.S. Senate seats, Republican nominee John Deaton said Monday that he would be willing to vote for a Democrat as U.S. Senate majority leader or even switch parties under certain circumstances.
“In a 50-50 Senate, I could guarantee that a federal abortion ban won’t come to the Senate floor,” Deaton, who describes himself as pro-choice, said during a GBH interview. “I’m non-partisan. I don’t have loyalty. I would look the Senate majority in the face and say, you in a 50-50 Senate, you bring that bill to the floor, and I’ll switch parties.”
Deaton said he has been a Democrat, independent, and a Republican, and that he voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. He also said several times during his segment on Boston Public Radio that he is critical of the Republican Party nominee for president, Donald Trump.
Deaton is trailing Warren, according to a MassINC Polling Group poll published Monday. About 56 percent of voters said they would award Warren another term if the election were held today, compared to 35 percent who would vote for Deaton.
University of New Hampshire poll results released last week showed Warren with a 58-32 advantage over Deaton.
Asked on the radio who he would vote for to lead the U.S. Senate if he was elected, Deaton said it depends on who his options are.
“If you’re offering, let’s take a Mitch McConnell versus an Amy Klobuchar, who do you think I’m gonna vote for?” Deaton asked hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan.
Braude said, “I don’t know, tell us.”
“Amy Klobuchar,” Deaton said, picking the Democrat over the Republican senator in the hypothetical scenario.
Braude interrupted, pointing out that the current Democratic leader in the Senate is Chuck Schumer of New York, and the choice of leader would most likely be between him and McConnell.
“Those are two equal evils to me. They’re equally evil,” Deaton said.
When pressed, Deaton said he would have private conversations with both of them and decide based on their agendas.
“If it’s an agenda that expands the middle class and takes the burden of this cost of living off the middle class, I’m going to support them regardless of the party politics, of party affiliation,” Deaton said.
Braude asked the candidate another hypothetical question, following the line of questioning about Senate leadership.
“Let’s assume you met with [Mitch McConnell] and Mitch McConnell says all the things you want to hear. Mitch McConnell becomes the leader of the Senate, because he said what you wanted, and then Merrick Garland is nominated for the Supreme Court, and he refuses to even have a hearing, what do you do? You can’t do anything about that,” Braude says.
The hypothetical is a reference to a situation in 2016 when former President Barack Obama nominated Garland, a federal appeals court judge at the time, to the federal Supreme Court to succeed Antonin Scalia, who had died in office. McConnell blocked the nomination because the vacancy arose during Obama’s final year as president. McConnell said the next justice should be chosen by the next president, who became now-former President Donald Trump, who was elected later that year.
He continued, “Senator Warren says, ‘Don’t vote for Deaton because of a 50-50 split.’ If you look at West Virginia, if you look at Montana, if you look at Ohio … the Senate is likely to flip [to a Republican majority] anyways. She’s just going to be another partisan person that’s dismissed in the Senate. I can fight for regular people, and poor people, even if it’s against my own party. But it’s a revolutionary idea that no one wants to believe is possible.”
New to NewBostonPost? Conservative media is hard to find in Massachusetts. But you’ve found it. Now dip your toe in the water for two bucks — $2 for two months. And join the real revolution.
