Joseph Theodore Lewis (born May 18, 2000) is an American school safety advocate. Lewis started Newtown Helps Rwanda, a charity that raised money for survivors of the 1994

Rwandan genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and Gre ...

as well as former

child soldiers in Uganda Child soldiers in Uganda are members of the Lord's Resistance Army, a rebel group that has been abducting young people since 1987 to fill out their ranks. Children and youth (both boys and girls) are usually abducted from their homes, often with one ...

. He previously was a candidate in the

2020 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2020. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems maintains a comprehensive list of upcoming elections on its E-Guide Platform. The National Democratic Institute also maintains a calend ...

for Connecticut state senator for the 28th district, dropping out before the August primaries to work on a national campaign. His younger brother Jesse Lewis was a victim of the 2012

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting On December 14, 2012, a mass shooting occurred at Newtown Public Schools, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, United States. The perpetrator, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people. The victims were 20 children bet ...

Newtown, Connecticut Newtown ( ) is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is part of the Greater Danbury area as well as the New York metropolitan area. Newtown was founded in 1705, and later incorporated in 1711. As of the 2020 census, its p ...

Early life and education

JT Lewis was born Joseph Theodore Lewis on May 18, 2000, to Scarlett Lewis. He was in grade 7 when his six-year-old brother Jesse Lewis was killed alongside 19 other grade one students in the

on December 14, 2012. Lewis was raised on a farm with his younger brother and they had horses, dogs, and chickens, which their mother bought in 1998. Several days after the shooting, former president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

met with Lewis, his mother, and the victims' families at Newtown High School. Lewis recalled the event years later saying that "President Obama treated me with the utmost respect and class. More importantly, ehonored my brother's memory." Lewis attended Newtown High School and was on the varsity football team, graduating in 2018. Lewis attended

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

as a

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

major. He played on the UConn football team as a walk-on kicker his Freshman year.

Advocacy and politics

After the shooting, Lewis became an advocate for trauma victims and founded the organization Newtown Helps Rwanda, which raises money for relatives of the victims of the 1994

Rwanda genocide The Rwandan genocide, also known as the genocide against the Tutsi, occurred from 7 April to 19 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. Over a span of around 100 days, members of the Tutsi ethnic group, as well as some moderate Hutu and T ...

to attend college and also participates in other causes. Survivors of the genocide reached out to Lewis via

Skype Skype () was a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for IP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also had instant messaging, file transfer, ...

to talk about their traumatic experiences losing family members due to violence and offer their condolences to him. As a gesture of gratitude to the survivors, Lewis founded the organization to raise money for their education. After a few months of fundraising, the organization raised enough money to send several survivors to college and have raised over $35,000. Lewis's organization also helped Ugandan former

child soldier Children in the military, including state armed forces, non-state armed groups, and other military organizations, may be trained for combat, assigned to support roles, such as cooks, porters/couriers, or messengers, or used for tactical adv ...

s build fishponds and poultry farms for

self-sufficiency Self-sustainability and self-sufficiency are overlapping states of being in which a person, being, or system needs little or no help from, or interaction with others. Self-sufficiency entails the self being enough (to fulfill needs), and a sel ...

. The organization has expanded its focus to several causes to help victims of trauma, such as victims and survivors of

automobile accident A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collision, collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other moving or stationary obstruction, such as a tree, Utility pole ...

s. He has also interned for the non-profit organization Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement, which his mother founded. Lewis co-won the Courage Award at the 2016

Teen Choice Awards The Teen Choice Awards were an annual awards show that aired on the Fox television network between 1999 and 2019. The awards, based on a popularity vote that could be overridden by the producerswho reserved the right to choose the winnerscovered ...

for his advocacy work. The award was presented to him by singer

Ne-Yo Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Regarded as a leading figure of Contemporary R&B#2000s, 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, includi ...

and actress

Jessica Alba Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her acting career at age 13 in ''Camp Nowhere'', followed up by ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'' (both 1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as ...

. He also met with singer

Justin Timberlake Justin Randall Timberlake (born January 31, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actor, record producer, and dancer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Prince of Pop", ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' honored him as the b ...

after the ceremony. Lewis met with president

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

in 2018 and participated in a roundtable discussion in the

Roosevelt Room The Roosevelt Room is a Conference hall, meeting room in the West Wing of the White House, the residence of the president of the United States, in Washington D.C. Located in the center of the wing, across the hall from the Oval Office, it is n ...

on the Federal Commission on School Safety report that was published after the

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...

to address gun violence in American schools. He attended with his mother Scarlett and sat next to Andrew Pollack, father of

Meadow Pollack On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...

, a victim of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, two seats away from the President. He shared his ideas about how to improve school safety with the President and other commission members. After the meeting, Lewis had a private moment with the President in the

Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval room has three lar ...

. After the

in 2018, Lewis became involved in school safety reform and policy. In July 2019, Lewis announced that he was running as a Republican in the 2020 elections to represent Connecticut's 28th senate district in the

Connecticut State Senate The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 99,280 inhabitants. Sena ...

and unseat third-term incumbent senator Tony Hwang. He decided to run for public office to honor his younger brother. His campaign was centered on improving

gun regulation A gun is a device that propels a projectile using pressure or explosive force. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns or cannons), or gas (e.g. light-gas gun). Solid projectiles may be fr ...

mental health Mental health is often mistakenly equated with the absence of mental illness. However, mental health refers to a person's overall emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It influences how individuals think, feel, and behave, and how t ...

and

mental health law Mental health law includes a wide variety of legal topics and pertain to people with a diagnosis or possible diagnosis of a mental health condition, and to those involved in managing or treating such people. Laws that relate to mental health incl ...

, and improving school safety. He has been critical of Hwang, saying that Hwang is "all about taking pictures and not taking action." Though he was running as a Republican, Lewis has expressed himself as a unifying figure and working with all lawmakers. If he won the election, he said he would still continue to attend the

as a state senator. He dropped out of the election in July. He announced on

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

on July 10 that he accepted a position with President

's 2020 campaign.

Political views

Lewis is a member of the Republican Party and has said he is supportive of president

and his administration. He supports improving national

background checks A background check is a process used by an organisation or person to verify that an individual is who they claim to be, and check their past record to confirm education, employment history, and other activities, and for a criminal record. The fre ...

on gun purchases. Commenting on his work with the Federal Commission on School Safety report, Lewis commented "It's not 100 percent perfect, but it is a great first step in the school safety movement." He also supports improving security at schools, including having armed guards at schools. Lewis has voiced support for

LGBT civil rights Rights affecting lesbian, Gay men, gay, Bisexuality, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the Capital punishmen ...

and is a supporter of

gun rights The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a legal right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, as well as ...

and the

Second Amendment The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

. He criticized the non-profit organization Sandy Hook Promise for using graphic images in their

PSA PSA, PsA, Psa, or psa may refer to: Biology and medicine * Posterior spinal artery * Primary systemic amyloidosis, a disease caused by the accumulation of abnormal proteins * Prostate-specific antigen, an enzyme used as a blood tracer for pro ...

s about school shootings.

Personal life

In 2013, in response to the

, JT's mother Scarlett started the non-profit Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement.

Awards

, Courage Award, 2016.

References

External links

*
JT Lewis
on LinkedIn
JT Lewis
on Twitter {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, JT Living people 2000 births Activists from Connecticut American child activists Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting American gun rights activists People from Connecticut University of Connecticut alumni Connecticut Republicans Candidates in the 2020 United States elections American political candidates Donald Trump 2020 presidential campaign American LGBTQ rights activists