Holocaust denier wins GOP congressional primary in Illinois

Holocaust denier Arthur Jones is now the Republican nominee in Illinois’ third district after running unopposed.

Despite being denounced by the Illinois Republican Party, Arthur Jones emerged victorious in the House race on Tuesday night after failing to win the nomination five times before.

Jones, whose campaign website includes a section that claims the Holocaust is “the biggest, blackest lie in history,” is a long-time neo-Nazi who was a former member of the Nationalist Socialist White People’s Party and the American Nazi Party, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

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“Arthur Jones is not a real Republican — he is a Nazi whose disgusting bigoted views have no place in our nation’s discourse,” the state’s GOP chairman Tim Schneider said.

Jones, who was the only Republican to file for the office after the GOP failed to recruit a candidate, will now face the Democratic nominee in the 2018 midterm elections.

Conservative Democrat Rep. Dan Lipinski maintains a narrow 1.8-point lead over progressive Marie Newman with 95 percent of precincts reporting.

Newman, who was little-known when she decided to challenge Lipinski for the seat he inherited from his father, had the backing of progressive groups as well as Sen. Bernie Sanders, who won Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District by 9 points over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primary.

She campaigned as the “true Democrat,” blasting Lipinski for opposing abortion and voting against same-sex marriage and President Barack Obama’s signature health care overhaul.

Lipinski was first elected in 2004, taking over a seat his father held for more than two decades. He faced little serious competition since then in the heavily Democratic district, which includes parts of Chicago’s southwest side and several suburbs.

Lipinski described himself as a “workhorse” who delivered for the district, bringing in federal transportation dollars and jobs. That helped earn him the support of many labor organizations, including the Illinois AFL-CIO.

He has called Newman and her supporters a “tea party of the left” and says their efforts to drive out Democrats with differing views will hurt the party and add to gridlock in Washington. Democrats, he said, should be united in fighting President Donald Trump, not going after each other.

With News Wire Services