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For a third straight U.S. Senate election cycle, all the primary action this season is on the Republican ballot, with three candidates competing to face Sen. Elizabeth Warren in the fall.
In seeking her third term, Warren — who has never faced a Democratic primary opponent — this November will face either a lawyer and former U.S. Marine from Bolton, a Quincy city councilor, or a Medford software engineer who accuses Warren and unnamed politicians of “teaching our children their Satanic religion.”
Raised in poverty outside Detroit
John Deaton, who recently moved from Swansea to Bolton, comes to the race with a compelling backstory that he published last year in a memoir, “Food Stamp Warrior.” Raised in Highland Park, Michigan, a Detroit suburb, Deaton told about growing up in poverty, physical and sexual abuse.
One of six siblings, Deaton, 57, first dropped out of high school, then enrolled in a small Catholic high school and completed studies there. He graduated from Eastern Michigan University, then New England School of Law. As a U.S. Marine he served as a judge advocate, according to his campaign website.
Key 2024 election dates
The state’s primary election is just two weeks away — on Sept. 3, the Tuesday after Labor Day. The general election follows nine weeks later on Nov. 5.
Sept. 3 primary election
Key dates in the primary election for New Bedford voters:
Aug. 24: Last day to register for primary election voting.
Aug: 26: Last day to apply for voting by mail in the primary election.
Aug. 24-30: Early voting for the primary election, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the New Bedford Main Public Library, 613 Pleasant St.
Sept. 3: Primary election. Polling hours are 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Nov. 5 general election
The general election is Nov. 5, with a new set of deadlines.
Oct. 26: Last day to register for voting in the Nov. 5 election.
Oct. 28: Last day to apply for voting by mail in the Nov. 5 election.
Oct. 19 to Nov. 1: Early voting from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Main Public Library, 613 Pleasant St.
Nov. 5: General election. Polls open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
More voter info
Where do you vote? To find your specific polling location, enter your street address and postal zip code in this online form. Check the list of New Bedford’s polling locations here.
Get additional info on voter registration, eligibility, requirements, etc., at the Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth website.
Find a list of Massachusetts candidates in the Democratic and Republican primary races.
Learn more about voting in New Bedford and find applications for absentee ballots and applications for voting by mail at the New Bedford Election Commission website.
Find additional information about voting in Massachusetts at Vote 411, from the League of Women Voters Education Fund.
He says he’s pursuing a “mission” to help those in poverty, but he does not see government programs as more than a way to help people through temporary hardship.
Warren’s “class warfare” won’t solve income inequality, he argues, and it encourages dependence on government programs. He supports tax incentives for small businesses opening in impoverished urban areas.
An advocate for cryptocurrency, Deaton wants to encourage financial literacy while removing barriers to investing in securities that are “unregistered.” That would include initial public offerings and hedge funds.
Deaton calls himself a “moderate” on social issues who favors abortion rights, but not late-term abortion except in cases of fetal anomalies and to save the mother’s life. He supports a broad array of alternative energy technologies to address climate change — including solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power — but not the plan proposed in Massachusetts and elsewhere to pursue net or near-zero carbon emissions by 2050. He fears that approach will cost too many jobs.
Deaton calls for boosting patrols along the southern boundary, ending so-called “catch and release” practices, and reforming the asylum process.
As a backer of cryptocurrency, Deaton has drawn considerable financial support from investors in the field, according to Politico. As of mid-August, the campaign reported more than $828,000 cash on hand, expenses of $931,000, and a $1 million loan from Deaton himself, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Councilor/entrepreneur presses innovation
Ian Cain, 42, the youngest of the three contenders, stresses his grasp of the digital economy and the need for change at the federal level to clear the way for innovation. Like Deaton, he also backs cryptocurrency, although he told Politico he sees both Deaton and Warren — who take opposing positions on this technology — overemphasizing the issue.
He argues that the key issue in 2024 is new leadership to create opportunity in emerging technologies. Washington, he said on his campaign site, is “stuck in the past.”
He said government stands in the way of economic progress, particularly in technology, but he supports what he calls “responsible regulation” of cryptocurrency. He’s calling for investment in infrastructure, a diversified solution to alternative energy, and public-private joint efforts to expand existing housing stock to reduce the cost of housing.
A “passion for change” prompted him to run for the council to become its first Black and openly gay member, he said. He’s now in his fifth council term.
Cain calls for a balanced federal budget, and laws that “empower police” rather than hamper them in doing their work.
On immigration, he supports the so-called “Remain in Mexico,” policy which has been the subject of legal wrangling since it was established under former President Donald Trump in 2019. He favors abortion rights, but agrees with the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision striking the constitutional right to abortion and returning the issue to the states.
At last report in August, Cain’s campaign listed $22,000 cash on hand and $368,000 in expenses.
Fire-breathing the culture war
Robert Antonellis, a 62-year-old career software engineer, can be sure of one thing in this race: no one will outflank him on the right.
He’s all in on the culture war, arguing that he has a plan to prevail over the “Radical Left” and “end all the assaults on our common decency, and create a healthy sense of normalcy, so Americans can finally get back to living their lives in peace.”
On his campaign site, he said he would block school instruction that “confuses and converts young students, often legally minors, to changing their identities, often intentionally hidden from the parents.” He said he would support criminal charges against those who “kidnap children from the inside out.”
A graduate of UMass Amherst, Antonellis in a published report called himself “pro-womanhood, pro-life and anti-abortion.”
On his campaign site, along with referring to cultural foes practicing “Satanic religion,” he refers to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, as an “inside job.” The whole thing, he says, was meant to muster support for the Patriot Act.
At last word, Antonellis’ FEC filing showed a bit more than $11,000 cash on hand, with nearly $39,000 in expenses and a loan of $54,000.
Email reporter Arthur Hirsch at ahirsch@newbedfordlight.org.
Don’t call them weird
Anyone but Warren and a democrat.
Warren will win easily again, she’s fairly popular and MAGA is poison for electability in Massachusetts. I think we are going to have a clean sweep of D federal legislators again.