Poll Shows Markey Leading Deaton 54% to 28% in Massachusetts Senate Race

A MassINC poll from early October showed Senator Ed Markey at 54% and Republican candidate John Deaton at 28% ahead of the November 3 Senate contest. Massachusetts has not sent a Republican to the Senate since Scott Brown won in 2010. The ballot will also include nine ballot questions.

Deaton, an attorney and Marine veteran, said he grew up in one of Detroit's toughest neighborhoods and left high school before a small Catholic college cut his tuition in half. He said he paid the rest washing dishes, shoveling snow, and waiting tables, then worked two years driving a forklift by day and waiting tables at night. He attended New England School of Law and lived in Roxbury, East Boston, and Malden, then served seven years as a Marine attorney before medical retirement from a training injury. He has represented asbestos cancer workers for 25 years and moved from Rhode Island to Massachusetts in 2024 for his first Senate run. He lost to Elizabeth Warren that year with about 40% of the vote.

On immigration, Deaton said he rejects both open borders and mass deportation. He proposes objective criteria for legal status: those brought as children, here more than 10 years, studying or working, and without criminal record would receive temporary status with a three-year probation period, then permanent status, then citizenship over time. He said a fee, possibly $500 or $5,000, remains undecided. His campaign backs a path to citizenship for DACA recipients meeting strict requirements and calls for resolving waits of up to 10 years for family petitions. He cited Reagan's 1986 law, which legalized about 2.7 million people. He also addressed H-1B, H-2B, and TPS holders who lost status. Haiti's TPS ended in August after a Supreme Court ruling; El Salvador's remains in effect pending government announcement.

Deaton said he opposes dismantling ICE but wants reform. "Abolish ICE is not a policy. It is a slogan," he said. He proposed limiting ICE to a Secure Communities model, collecting undocumented people arrested by local police on felony charges, not at Walmart, Home Depot, churches, or restaurants. Markey asked Congress to approve the SECURE Act for TPS holders; his office said more than 7,000 Salvadorans with TPS live in Massachusetts. Markey voted against ICE funding in January after deaths in Minneapolis operations and has called to dismantle the agency.

Deaton said a starter home in Massachusetts costs $650,000; a May 2026 Warren Group report put the single-family median at $665,000. He proposed building 5 million homes in five years on federal land such as former military bases, with developer incentives. On energy, he cited an example of $100 supply cost with $400 delivery cost and defended nuclear and natural gas in October's debate. His campaign says three insurers control more than 90% of the health sector and proposes breaking them up. Markey defended the Green New Deal and Medicare for All in July's primary debate.

Deaton said AI will affect legal assistant and attorney jobs but not electricians, welders, plumbers, or heavy equipment operators. He proposed vocational training from high school and a GI Bill-style program with credits and grants for young people to start businesses without $200,000 in student debt. For Lawrence, a city 82.3% Latino, he proposed tax credits and enterprise zones with preferential tax treatment for small business owners, extending the idea to Lowell and other cities with large Latino populations. Markey, the senior Democrat on the Senate small business committee, introduced the SPARK Act in February with grants and low-cost loans for small businesses in underserved communities. His office said Latino and Black businesses in Massachusetts report twice the financing problems of white-owned businesses.

Deaton said Democrats take the Latino vote for granted and promised to add a community member to his permanent team to review each bill from that perspective, with the same for Black and Asian communities. "If I get a seat at the table, you will have a seat at the table," he said. He describes himself as independent, said he would vote sometimes with Democrats and sometimes with Republicans, and repeated that he never voted for Trump. Markey said that regardless of what Deaton says, electing a Republican would help keep the Senate majority Republican. Markey has served in Congress since 1977. Deaton said he worked with many Latinos in the Marines and that the community shares his values of hard work, family, and faith. Polls open Tuesday, November 3.