The Illinois Republican Party was unable to draft a candidate against Holocaust denier Arthur Jones, and now he’s won the Republican primary in Illinois’ Third Congressional District. Jones is a former member of the American Nazi Party and, as a student at the University of Wisconsin, founded a conservative newspaper and was active in the Young Republicans and a Nationalist Socialist student group. The good news is that the Third Congressional District is heavily Democratic, but in these crazy times of Russian meddling and the refusal of the White House to disavow American Nazis, there’s no telling who will win.
From the New York Times:
“Arthur Jones is not a real Republican — he is a Nazi whose disgusting, bigoted views have no place in our nation’s discourse,” Tim Schneider, the Illinois Republican Party chairman, said in a statement. He said the party had urged voters “to skip over his name when they go to the polls” and moving forward planned on “vehemently opposing Jones with real campaign dollars.”
A spokesman for the Illinois Republican Party said those dollars would be used to support an independent candidate in the November general election. Party leaders are in talks with several potential candidates, the spokesman said, but have not yet decided which one to endorse.
From CNN:
Jones says he supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election but in 2017, he expressed his regret over voting for Trump over a weakened stance on the US-Mexico border wall.
“I’m sorry I voted for the son of a b****, I really am,” Jones told the Guardian.