Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Illinois GOP Exploring ‘All Options’ To Get Rid Of Holocaust Denier Candidate

The Illinois Republican Party is exploring “all options” in its effort to thwart Arthur Jones, an anti-Semitic white supremacist and Holocaust denier who is running unopposed in the Republican primary for a Chicago-area congressional seat.

“Going forward, the Illinois Republican Party will explore all options to oppose Mr. Jones’ candidacy — whether that be supporting an independent candidate for IL-03 after the primary, encouraging a write-in campaign, and potentially other options,” Illinois Republican Party executive director Drew Collins told the Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday. “Nazis have no place in our nation’s democracy, and to that end, we will continue to vehemently oppose everything Mr. Jones stands for.”

Jones, a 70-year-old retired insurance agent and perennial losing candidate, is a former leader of the American Nazi Party. His campaign website includes a section called “Holocaust?” in which he calls the genocide of six million Jews “the biggest blackest lie in history.”

Jones tried running for the Republican nomination for the same district in 2016, but the Republican party successfully challenged his petition signatures. This time, the party, as well as his two Democratic opponents, said that his signatures look genuine. Jones has no opponents in the primary to run as a Republican candidate in the heavily-Democratic district.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected]

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.

In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.

At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.

Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.