Arthur Jones, an outspoken white supremacist and Holocaust denier, has unsuccessfully run for public office in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas since the 1970s. But he is now set to win the the Republican primary on March 20 in the race for Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District, his eighth attempt for the seat.
The difference this year? He’s the only Republican on the ballot.
On his campaign website, “Art Jones for Congressman,” there’s a tab titled “Holocaust?” in which he describes the “idea that six million jews were killed by the national socialist government of Germany” as the “biggest, blackest lie in history.”
When questioned about his anti-Semitic views, Jones told the Sun-Times: “Well first of all, I’m running for Congress, not the chancellor of Germany, alright?” he said. “To me, the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket.”
Fortunately, Jones has a one in whatever-our-national-debt-is chance of winning the congressional seat. Illinois’s 3rd District is “safely Democratic,” according to Ballotpedia. Dan Lipinski, the Democratic incumbent, has held the seat since 2005 and won’t be giving it up to a former leader of the American Nazi Party, a position Jones held and bragged about to the Sun-Times.
Because the 3rd District historically votes blue, the GOP often declines to mount a challenge. Candidate recruitment in “safely Democratic” areas is not always successful, Aaron DeGroot, a spokesperson for the Illinois Republican Party, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD. As a result, the Illinois GOP has failed to put forward a Republican candidate the last two elections.
This—and the fact that in Illinois, state statutes rather than the political parties determine ballot access—opens the door for just about anyone to jump-start a campaign; hence, Jones and his 40-plus years of failed attempts.
Jones tried to run against Lipinski in 2016 as a write-in candidate, but the Illinois Republican Party successfully removed him from the ballot since Jones did not meet the signature requirement — a legal standard required of all candidates by the state of Illinois. Lipinski swept the 2016 race, taking 100 percent of the vote (he also faced no opposition in the Democratic primary).
This time around, however, Jones successfully gathered more than 600 signatures from Republican primary voters, says DeGroot. This means that, unlike 2016, the Illinois GOP can’t petition to have Jones legally removed from the ballot. Regardless, Jones poses little threat to Lipinski, who, even when facing opposition, has safely carried more than 60 percent of the vote in each election, according to Ballotpedia.
Representatives of the Illinois Republican Party have been quick to condemn Jones’s campaign. Tim Schneider, chairman of the Illinois GOP, said Jones has no real connection to the party: “The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones,” Schneider said in a statement. “We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District.”
Michael Ahrens, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, told the Weekly Standard: “We condemn this candidate and his hateful rhetoric in the strongest possible terms.”
The Illinois GOP said that after the primary, it will “explore all available options” to oppose Jones’s campaign.
“Moving forward, we will be looking at every option available, whether that be supporting an independent candidate or staging a write-in campaign,” DeGroot said.
Although candidate recruitment is difficult in decidedly Democratic districts, the Arthur Jones debacle raises the question: Why didn’t the Illinois GOP do more to prevent this? In hindsight, shelling out resources for a Republican campaign — futile as it may be — would have been the safer route. Jones blindsided the Illinois GOP by reaching the signature threshold, but had the party been prepared with a candidate of its own, Jones and his anti-Semitic views could have been easily swept aside.
As it stands, the Illinois GOP must follow through with its promise to throw its weight behind a different campaign. If they don’t ensure Jones’s eighth attempt fails, the letter “R” will sit beside his name on the ballot come November.
