Arthur Jones, a Republican candidate for Congress from Chicago. Image by YouTube

A former Republican congressional staffer is launching an independent write-in campaign in the Chicago-area district where a neo-Nazi will be on the ballot in November, Politico reported.

Lawyer and former congressional aide Justin Hanson said he felt compelled to join the race for the 3rd Congressional District after learning Holocaust denier Arthur Jones was the Republican nominee.

“I’m running because I don’t believe men like Art Jones should be allowed to go unchallenged,” Hanson said in an interview with Politico. “I’m running to give residents of this community a choice. Because as it stands now, they don’t have one.”

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Hanson faces incumbent Rep. Dan Lipinski and Jones, a former leader of the American Nazi Party who ran unopposed in the Republican primary for Illinois’ heavily-Democratic 3rd District outside Chicago.

Jones is known in the area for a long history spewing conspiracy theories about the Holocaust, asserting that it was depicted inaccurately in the media and that it was impossible for Nazis to have killed six million Jews.

“There’s more to me than being a denier of the Holocaust,” he claimed in a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune. “I’m an American patriot.”

Republicans have denounced his candidacy, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz even encouraged people to vote for Lipinski, a Democrat.

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected], or follow her on Twitter at @alyssalfisher

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