How a Nazi Made the Ballot in Illinois
The Illinois Republican Party is condemning the man poised to be its nominee for Congress in the state’s third congressional district as a Nazi. So how did he end up on the ballot? The answer points to failures of democratic safeguards on every level, from a state party unable to recruit an alternative candidate in a highly partisan district, to voters signing ballot-access petitions without paying much attention. But even if the final bulwark holds when voters go to the polls in November, those failures have already delivered Arthur Jones the thing he may want most—attention for his extremist views.
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In an interview with The Atlantic, Jones said he identifies as a “white racialist,” and believes that white people are more intelligent than black people. Two of his primary political goals include ending America’s wars in the Middle East, which he says primarily serve the interests of Israel, and cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities. “I will work with the [Ku Klux] Klan, with socialists—I exclude communists of course—any patriotic organization that is in general agreement with my beliefs and principles,” he said.
Jones, a health-insurance agent living in Lyons, Illinois, spent eight years as a member of the National Socialist White People’s Party—previously known as the American Nazi Party—and has been active with the America First Committee since the 1980s. Illinois’s third congressional district, which encompasses part of Cook County, has been represented by Democrat Dan Lipinski since 2005 (and by his father, Bill Lipinski, before that). Jones has run unsuccessfully in the primary for the district six times since 1998.
He makes no secret of his views. The Anti-Defamation League has flagged him as a “longtime neo-Nazi.” His campaign website features sections including “News” and “Contribute” and “Holocaust?” He told me that he was disappointed in President Trump for appointing so many Jewish people to his Cabinet. (Plus, he said, “there’s a whole layer of other Jews that you don’t see that actually make the policy.”)
The state GOP has offered a full-throated condemnation of Jones’s candidacy. “The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones,” said Illinois Republican Party Chairman Tim Schneider in a statement. “We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District.” The state’s Republican National Committee members, Demetra DeMonte and Richard Porter, declined to comment on Jones’s candidacy.
At least he's honest about his views.