NEW YORK – An avowed white supremacist and Holocaust denier is poised to capture the Republican nomination of an Illinois congressional seat because he is running unopposed.
“Well first of all, I’m running for Congress not the chancellor of Germany,” Art Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times during an interview over the weekend. “To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket.”
Jones’ website, setup for his latest campaign, contains a section titled “The ‘Holocaust Racket,’” where he calls Hitler’s systematic liquidation of Europe’s Jewish community “the biggest blackest lie in history.”
If he wins, the 70-year-old retired insurance agent will represent parts of Chicago and nearby suburbs.
Residing in Lyons, Illinois – located just over 10 miles outside of Chicago – Jones has unsuccessfully run for elected office in the state since the 1970s, making a bid for the GOP nomination at least seven times.
He also ran for Milwaukee mayor in 1976, according to the Sun-Times.
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But this year’s primary, scheduled to be held on March 20, marks a dramatic departure from past elections.
That means the GOP establishment is now bridled with an admitted racist as its candidate, which they have been quick to distance themselves from.
“The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones,” Tim Schneider, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party said in a statement to the Sun-Times.
“We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District,” Schneider added.
Jones, by his own account, is the former leader of the American Nazi Party and has revived the America First Committee, a group that serves “to combat the dual evils of Communism and Zionism.”
“Membership in this organization is open to any white American citizen of European, non-Jewish descent,” he added.
The Anti-Defamation League has kept tabs on Jones for years, describing him as a man “who proudly displays Holocaust denial, xenophobia and racism on his blog and website” and “has participated in numerous extremist events, including neo-Nazi rallies and celebrations of Adolf Hitler’s birthday throughout his career.”
“For example, in 2009, he protested the opening of the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, and continues to espouse absurd conspiracy theories questioning the deaths of millions of Jews… He is, by every definition, an anti-Semite and unrepentant bigot,” the ADL added.
Jones’ Democratic challenger come November will either Rep. Dan Lipinski, D-Ill., a Western Springs resident, or Lipinski’s Democratic primary challenger, Marie Newman from LaGrange.
The chances of Jones actually being elected to the US House of Representatives in virtually nil, with the 3rd Congressional District being one of the most heavily Democratic areas in the state, the Sun-Times noted.