Jonathan D. Lott (Massachusetts)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Jonathan D. Lott

Healthcare Environment Stability

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

University of Vermont, 2014

Personal

Profession

Educator

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign X

Campaign Instagram

Campaign YouTube

Personal Facebook

Personal LinkedIn

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.

Biography

Email editor@ballotpedia.org to notify us of updates to this 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.

Elections

2020

See also: Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District election, 2020

Massachusetts' 8th Congressional District election, 2020 (September 1 Democratic primary)

General election

General election for U.S. House Massachusetts District 8

Incumbent Stephen Lynch defeated Jonathan D. Lott in the general election for U.S. House Massachusetts District 8 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Stephen Lynch (D)	80.7	310,940
		Jonathan D. Lott (Healthcare Environment Stability)	18.7	72,060
		Other/Write-in votes	0.6	2,401

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 385,401
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Democratic primary election

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	66.4	111,542
		Robbie Goldstein	33.5	56,219
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	222

---

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 167,983
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Mohammad Dar (D)
• Brianna Wu (D)

2016

See also: Massachusetts State Senate elections, 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.

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.

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. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

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?

• Preventing the Collapse of Civilization as We Know It
• The Environment
• Healthcare (Medicare-for-All)

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:

“	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.	”
—Jonathan Lott

See also

2020 Elections

What's on the ballot? U.S. President U.S. Congress U.S. Congress special elections State executives State legislatures State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards Election analysis hub

Government

Who represents me? U.S. Congress State executives State legislators State courts Ballot measures Municipal government School boards

Newsletters

Coronavirus Weekly Updates Documenting America's Path to Recovery The Heart of the Primaries The Daily Brew The Weekly Brew The Ballot Bulletin Checks and Balances Economy and Society Hall Pass Number of the Day Robe & Gavel Union Station

External links

Suggest a link

• Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

[show]

Massachusetts' current delegation to the United States Congress

Senators

Edward Markey (D)

Elizabeth Warren (D)

Representatives

District 1

Richard Neal (D)

District 2

Jim McGovern (D)

District 3

Lori Trahan (D)

District 4

Jake Auchincloss (D)

District 5

Katherine Clark (D)

District 6

Seth Moulton (D)

District 7

Ayanna Pressley (D)

District 8

Stephen Lynch (D)

District 9

Bill Keating (D)

Democratic Party (11)