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US Senate candidate John Deaton is campaigning for two billionaires: Musk and Cuban

US Senate candidate John Deaton is campaigning for two billionaires: Musk and Cuban

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Elon Musk is working hard to help Donald Trump win, while Mark Cuban is fully behind Kamala Harris. But they found common ground in John Deaton's campaign against Elizabeth Warren.

US Senate candidate John Deaton is campaigning for two billionaires: Musk and Cuban

John Deaton is campaigning at the Massachusetts State House in a long-term bid to unseat Sen. Elizabeth Warren. David L. Ryan / The Boston Globe

As John Deaton works to position himself as a moderate Republican in the long run to unseat Senator Elizabeth Warren, he is touting the support of two billionaires on opposite sides of the political spectrum: Elon Musk and Mark Cuban.

Musk expressed his support for Deaton on Monday in a one-word post on X, the social media site he runs.

Despite previous statements about the importance of remaining politically neutral, Musk is very publicly involved in the current presidential election. He is currently campaigning on behalf of former President Donald Trump and is donating millions to the Trump campaign. Under Musk's control, the platform formerly known as Twitter became increasingly popular among right-wing users. Musk has been accused of using the platform to spread his own political views, and X has become a hotbed of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Mark Cuban, on the other hand, is fully behind Vice President Kamala Harris. The billionaire businessman is appearing at Harris campaign events in battleground states and is planning numerous media appearances to attack Trump and bolster Harris. He recently tried to arrange a private meeting between Musk and Harris, ABC News reported, but Harris' team declined. Cuban recently claimed that the election is coming down to a fight between Harris and Musk, and regularly uses X to express his opinions and argue with Musk.

But the two have found common ground in Deaton.

“The support of two successful business people with opposing political views shows how my message of bipartisanship and assertiveness resonates across the political spectrum,” Deaton said in a statement.

Deaton said in a press conference this week that he had not “lobbied” for Musk's support but was happy about it.

“If the richest man in the world and the greatest entrepreneur of our time want to say that John Deaton is better for the country, then I'll take it,” he said.

A key reason for Warren's popularity as a progressive stems from her longstanding assertion that the super-rich don't pay their fair share of taxes. She has publicly clashed with Cubans on this issue several times.

Cuban said in a post on X in April that he supported Deaton and argued that a capital gains tax increase was not the right thing for Democrats.

Ross Cristantiello

Staff writer


Ross Cristantiello, a general news reporter for Boston.com since 2022, covers local politics, crime, the environment and more.


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