White Supremacist Holocaust Denier Likely to Become GOP Nominee in US House Race

A Holocaust-denying white supremacist, Arthur “Art” Jones, is the only Republican primary candidate running for the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District, meaning he will likely become the party’s official nominee next month, according to local reports.

The 70-year-old resident of Lyons, a suburb of Chicago—who, on his campaign website, declares “it’s time to put America first” and the Holocaust is “the biggest, blackest, lie in history”—told the Chicago Tribune this race is “absolutely the best opportunity in my entire political career.”

“He ran for Milwaukee mayor in 1976 and 13th Ward alderman on Chicago’s Southwest Side in 1987,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “Since the 1990s to 2016, Jones has jumped in the GOP 3rd Congressional District primary seven times, never even close to becoming a viable contender.”

Now—although the chairman of the state’s Republican Party has denounced Jones’s candidacy, and he will likely be defeated by one of the Democrats, Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.) or the representative’s primary challenger, Marie Newman—his candidacy is prompting national discussions about racism and candidates for elected office following the election of President Donald Trump, who repeatedly disparaged people of color and immigrants on the campaign trail, and has continued to do so as president.