Neo-Nazi, Holocaust denier could win GOP nomination in Illinois
Art Jones is the Nazi/Republican candidate for Congress in Illinois' third district
CHICAGO - A 70-year-old retired insurance agent, who is also an outspoken Holocaust denier, activist anti-Semite and white supremacist, could become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat representing parts of Chicago.
“Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany. All right. To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,” Arthur Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times this week.
Jones’ website for his latest congressional run includes a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket’” where he calls the genocide carried out by the German Nazi regime and collaborators in other nations “the biggest blackest lie in history.”
Jones has unsuccessfully run for elected offices in the Chicago area and Milwaukee since the 1970s, the Sun Times noted. To Jones’ own amazement, he is the only one on the Republican ballot.
Tim Schneider, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, said in a statement to the Sun-Times, “The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones. We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District.”
The Anti-Defamation League has watched Jones for about a decade.
“Arthur Jones, who proudly displays Holocaust denial, xenophobia and racism on his blog and website, has a long history of hateful, extremist and anti-Semitic views,” said Lonnie Nasatir, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Chicago-Upper Midwest Region. “He has spoken publicly at numerous neo-Nazi rallies and events, expressing xenophobic policies based in racial and religious hatred. He is, by every definition, an anti-Semite and unrepentant bigot.”
In November, Jones will face either Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., a Western Springs resident, or Lipinski’s Democratic primary challenger, Marie Newman from La Grange, the Sun Times reported.
Jones will almost certainly be defeated in November, the Sun Times noted. That’s because the 3rd Congressional District is one of the most heavily Democratic in the state.