What do Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren and John Deaton, her Republican challenger, have in common?

They both deplore Donald Trump.

And Deaton, 57, a businessman and former U.S. Marine who won the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate over two other Republicans, seems to disparage Trump even more than does the tart-tongued Warren.

While Warren, 75, who is seeking her third term in the Senate, darkly warns of “profoundly serious consequences” if Trump is elected president in November, Deaton dumps all over him.

He is not a Trump fan, to say the least, and has called Trump, among other things, “the worst human being” around in a 2020 post on X.

Of course, Trump’s harsh critics may now be pulling their punches following the second assassination attempt on the former president.

Not that Trump has much of a coattail effect in liberal Massachusetts, although he did get 30% of the vote in 2016 against Hillary Clinton and against Joe Biden in 2020.

He is, however, expected to do much better against Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

But it seems that Deaton, a relatively unknown newcomer to Massachusetts — as well as the all-but-irrelevant GOP  — would want all the help they could get against Warren.

This includes support from a not insignificant group of people, Democrats and Independents, who back Trump.

Alienating Trump will not do it, especially when it comes, for instance, to dealing with the influx of criminal illegal immigrants, and others.

Deaton, who visited the southern border, said in his acceptance speech that if elected he “will work to secure the border and end the migrant crisis,” which Trump has promised to do.

Trump has vowed “on day one” to “seal the southern border” and begin deporting criminal illegal immigrants who have wreaked havoc in cities across the country.

So, Deaton, in effect, will not support the man who will do what Deaton wants done on immigration. Talk about awkward.

While it is healthy that Warren has some opposition, the diminished GOP in Massachusetts would do well to concentrate on races that it can win.

It needs to build not from the top down but from the bottom up, like supporting solid Republican candidates who can win seats in the heavily Democratic controlled state Legislature.

Currently there are only four Republicans in the 40-member Massachusetts State Senate.

One such candidate is Republican Kelly Dooner, a Taunton City Councilor, who is running for the open southeastern Massachusetts Senate seat held by longtime Democrat Sen. Marc Pacheco who did not seek re-election.

Dooner is opposed by Democratic Raynham Selectman Joe Pacheco, no relation to the outgoing senator. It is the first time in 32 years that the seat has been open.

And like campaigns for office elsewhere, including the presidency, illegal immigration is a major issue.

Dooner has raised it in the takeover of the Clarion Hotel in Taunton by the Healey administration to house illegal immigrants without even notifying municipal officials.

As a result, Taunton has lost tax revenue from the hotel while being stuck with increased costs for schools and public safety.

“Our state is being bankrupted by the influx of immigrants. We are spending billions, not millions, of dollars to house people who are not legally here in our nation. It is unsustainable and it is unfair to the hard-working taxpayers of the Commonwealth,” she said.

Unlike the Biden administration, which failed to close the border it opened, and Congress, which has also failed to secure it, Dooner at least believes the state can do something to deal with the problem.

And that is to enforce or amend the state’s so called “Right to Shelter Law” which was originally passed 40 years ago to deal with homeless Massachusetts residents.

The law was not intended to house and feed an influx of thousands of illegal immigrants from around the world.

Yet that is how the Healey administration interpreted it and the state became a magnet for immigrants.

Dooner may not be able to change things, but at least she is electable, will try, and is needed in the Senate.

Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com