Neo-Nazi gets 10% in Republican primary – even after state party warned voters

Arthur Jones, a Republican candidate for Congress from Chicago. Image by YouTube
A Holocaust denier got 10% of the votes in an Illinois Republican congressional primary — even after the state Republican Party undertook a major publicity push urging voters not to nominate him.
Arthur Jones, a former leader of the American Nazi Party and frequent political candidate, was the Republican nominee for the Third Congressional District race in 2018 because he was the only Republican candidate who signed up to run in the heavily Democratic district outside Chicago.
After he got the nomination, local and national Republican leaders urged citizens not to vote for their own nominee in the general election — but while Jones lost 74%-26% that November, he still got more than 56,000 votes.
Ahead of this year’s congressional primary, which unlike the last one had competitors, the Illinois Republican Party unleashed a series of robocalls, ads, door-knockers and mailers educating voters about Jones’ views, the Chicago-Sun Times reported. The effort partially worked: Jones came in third in the primary. But he still received more than 1,600 votes, around 10% of the total.
The state Republican party declared victory that their chosen candidate, Will County Board member Mike Fricilone, triumphed over Jones. “I promised that the Illinois Republican Party would do everything in its power to defeat Nazi Arthur Jones. And we did,” party chairman Tim Schneider said in a statement Tuesday. “Because many folks go to the polls and simply choose a familiar name in down ballot races, the ILGOP was committed to deploying resources to educate voters on Jones’ heinous views.”
Aiden Pink is the deputy news editor of the Forward. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @aidenpink
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Fast Forward Why the Antisemitism Awareness Act now has a religious liberty clause to protect ‘Jews killed Jesus’ statements
- 2
News School Israel trip turns ‘terrifying’ for LA students attacked by Israeli teens
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
News Why Zohran Mamdani believes he’ll win over Jewish voters, as Israel critic surges to second behind Cuomo in NYC mayoral race
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward A ‘Golden Dome for America,’ inspired by Israel, is part of Trump’s 2026 budget request
-
Books How Jews shaped the Western – and how the Western shaped Jews
-
Culture Cardinals are Catholic not Jewish — so why do they all wear yarmulkes?
-
Fast Forward Halal restaurant opening in Congress is like ‘Muslim conquest of Jerusalem,’ says GOP congressman
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
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 comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag 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.