Republican Party Nominates The Former Head Of The American Nazi Party For Congress

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THE GOOD NEWS

He appears to have little chance of winning.

While the modern incarnation of the Republican Party is no stranger to supporting controversial candidates (accused child molester Roy Moore, accused sexual abuser Donald Trump, etc.), the GOP seems to be constantly trying to outdo itself.

The latest attempt? Nominating Arthur Jones — the former leader of the American Nazi Party — to be its candidate this November for the Illinois 3rd Congressional District. Jones now heads the America First Committee, which restricts membership to “any white American citizen of European, non-Jewish descent,” he told the Chicago Sun-Times.

“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,” Lonnie Nasatir, the regional director of the Anti-Defamation League Chicago-Upper Midwest Region, said.

“To me the Holocaust is what I said it is: It’s an international extortion racket,” Jones told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Illinois Republican leaders have also come out against Jones’s candidacy. “The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones,” Tim Schneider, chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, also told the Sun-Times. “We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District.”

Over the past three decades, Jones has run in the Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District seat seven times but has never come close to winning. This year, Jones got the nomination because he was the only Republican running.

In November, Jones will face either Representative Dan Lipinski or Lipinski’s Democratic primary challenger, Marie Newman. But the district is heavily blue and Democrats have held the seat since 1975, so, luckily, Jones has little chance of winning.