Jonathan D. Lott
Jonathan D. Lott (Healthcare Environment Stability) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Lott completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.
Lott was a 2016 independent candidate for Norfolk, Bristol & Plymouth District of the Massachusetts State Senate.
Contents
Biography
Lott graduated from the University of Vermont in 2014, double-majoring in English and classical civilization. He held a position as a Latin teacher at Greenwich High School in Connecticut for the 2014-2015 school year, and also taught Latin at Needham from December 2015 to February 2016. He hitchhiked across America in March 2016. He has also supervised at a ropes course in Canton, Massachusetts.[1]
Elections
2020
See also: Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District election, 2020
Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District election, 2020 (September 1 Democratic primary)
General election for U.S. House Massachusetts District 8
Incumbent Stephen Lynch defeated Jonathan D. Lott and Robbie Goldstein in the general election for U.S. House Massachusetts District 8 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate |
% |
Votes |
||
| ✔ |
|
Stephen Lynch (D) |
79.6
|
115,869 |
|
|
Jonathan D. Lott (Healthcare Environment Stability) |
19.9
|
28,907 | |
| Other/Write-in votes |
0.6
|
847 | ||
|
|
Total votes: 145,623 |
Democratic primary for U.S. House Massachusetts District 8
Incumbent Stephen Lynch defeated Robbie Goldstein in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Massachusetts District 8 on September 1, 2020.
Candidate |
% |
Votes |
||
| ✔ |
|
Stephen Lynch |
66.7
|
109,552 |
|
|
Robbie Goldstein |
33.3
|
54,774 | |
|
|
Total votes: 164,326 |
2016
Elections for the Massachusetts State Senate took place in 2016. The primary election took place on September 8, 2016, and the general election was held on November 8, 2016. The candidate filing deadline was June 7, 2016. Incumbent Brian Joyce (D) did not seek re-election.
Walter Timilty defeated Jonathan D. Lott in the Massachusetts State Senate Norfolk, Bristol & Plymouth District general election.[2][3]| Massachusetts State Senate, Norfolk, Bristol & Plymouth District General Election, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic |  Walter Timilty |
63.69% | 56,466 | |
| Independent | Jonathan D. Lott | 22.51% | 19,960 | |
| Other | Blank Votes | 13.61% | 12,071 | |
| Other | All Others | 0.19% | 167 | |
| Total Votes | 88,664 | |||
| Source: Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth | ||||
Walter Timilty defeated Nora Harrington in the Massachusetts State Senate Norfolk, Bristol & Plymouth District Democratic Primary.[4][5]
| Massachusetts State Senate, Norfolk, Bristol & Plymouth District Democratic Primary, 2016 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Democratic | Walter Timilty |
55.81% | 8,045 | |
| Democratic | Nora Harrington | 44.19% | 6,371 | |
| Total Votes | 14,416 | |||
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Jonathan D. Lott completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Lott's responses.
Who are you? Tell us about yourself.
Jon Lott was born and raised in Stoughton, Massachusetts. He attended Catholic Memorial High School in West Roxbury, and the University of Vermont, where he earned his B.A. double-majoring in English and Classical Civilization. He has taught several subjects (U.S. History, Latin, World Cultures, English as a Second Language, U.S. Government, Leadership, and Economics) across several schools in Connecticut, Massachusetts, China, and Saudi Arabia. After hitchhiking across the United States (DC to LA), he published a memoir about the experience, Hitchhike America. In 2016, he ran for Massachusetts State Senate as an independent candidate, and was the runner-up with 22.5% of the total vote. He was also a Stoughton Town Meeting Rep for two years.
Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?
What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?
International Law, Election Reform, Bioethics, Structural Change, Geoengineering Climate Change Solutions, War and Peace, Sustainability, Technology Law.
What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?
Integrity, honesty, clear-mindedness, the ability to listen. Strong focus, vigor, raw intelligence, the ability to read and write for hours every day. Managing personalities, and understanding data, cognitive biases, and philosophy. The ability to communicate well, humility, determination, compassion, and foresight.
What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?
I am upfront, accessible, and serious. No other politician that I've seen is as direct about the oncoming ecological collapse of complex civilization. Even though many politicians claim it's an emergency on their website, they aren't committing enough attention to it, and their plans are often short-sighted, casual, and insufficient. I've been all around the world and taught all sorts of things to all sorts of different people. I have a wide base of knowledge and understanding and experience. I'm gutsy, or else I never would've run, and I'm not too patient. Thank you for taking the time to read these responses, dear voter, and thank you to everyone who voted or will vote for me. Stay safe.
What was your very first job? How long did you have it?
It wasn't a steady job, but I've been working with my father on-and-off (mostly off) since my early teens. I helped install large glass block windows in houses, and assemble furniture and bookcases and sheds and trampolines and anything else. I still find a few days every year to work for my father putting something together.
What process do you favor for redistricting?
A non-partisan independent redistricting body managed by the U.S. Congress ought to redistrict the U.S. House seats every 10 years.
What qualities does the U.S. House of Representatives possess that makes it unique as an institution?
The U.S. House is the most populist legislative body. They are numbered proportionally, and serve the shortest term length of office. Of course, they also have the "power of the purse." The U.S. House also is the body to officially start the impeachment process.
Do you believe that it's beneficial for representatives to have previous experience in government or politics?
It certainly helps to know how things work on the inside. Nobody would deny that long experience in government is beneficial, as all experience is. The question is whether government experience is the most beneficial kind of experience. Are there fields in which the experience there is more valuable to government? I think this response may be too Socratic...
What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?
Climate Change, and preventing the collapse of civilization as we know it. Collapse is related to economics, international relations, our dying environment, the limits to growth, and downstream factors like water/food scarcity, massive migrations, and resentment. We have overshot the ecological cliff and created a system that is beginning to fall apart. Infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet. Brace yourself. The decisions we make now will decide the future of life itself-the only life we humans know. We can scale down wastefulness and pollution tremendously, if we build a robust, trusting, good-faith coalition of countries around the world to address the climate crisis. If we do not, if we continue business as usual, we will see more storms, desertification, wildfires, endless waves of refugees, disappearing coasts, civil wars across the world, police states, wage slavery, the desecration of beautiful natural areas, and much more. If you are reading this, you are more aware than most. Please don't let this blurb be the last time you think deeply about these issues. Have the profound philosophical conversations about what this future means to you, your family and friends, and the planet itself. Earth is a special place, and we are just passing through.
Is there a particular representative, past or present, whom you want to model yourself after?
No. While there are many qualified and virtuous leaders in the past, you shouldn't deliberately model yourself after another politician. You've got to stay true to yourself and your conscience.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2016
Lott issued the following statement regarding his bid for office:[1]
| “ | I'm running for office because I'm tired of do-nothing politicians and the two-party system.
The opioid crisis in Massachusetts is tearing apart our communities while our elected officials react too slowly. We should bring Gloucester's plan to every town in the state and institute 1:1 needle exchanges at all police stations, where addicts can swap one dirty needle for one clean needle. I was a high school teacher for about two years, and I want to bring changes to our state's educational system, cutting back on standardized testing and bringing classes like personal finance and coding to our schools. I'm also huge on clean energy, particularly solar energy. We should lift the cap dramatically or remove it entirely and incentivize solar growth in the Commonwealth. The MBTA, our public transportation system, is a disaster. We can't offer competitive rent prices when people rely on a dysfunctional system to get to and from work in and around Boston. We need to modernize the system and bring back late-night service.[6] |
” |
| —Jonathan Lott | ||
See also
2020 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted through Ballotpedia's biographical information form on June 12, 2016.
- ↑ Massachusetts Secretary of State, "2016 State election candidates," accessed October 3, 2016
- ↑ Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, "Election data lookup," accessed December 20, 2016
- ↑ Massachusetts Secretary of State, "2016 Primary Candidates (Democratic)," accessed June 20, 2016
- ↑ Secretary of the Commonweath of Massachusetts, "Massachusetts Election Statistics," accessed October 14, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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