The Illinois Republican Party is advocating against neo-Nazi and Holocaust-denier Arthur Jones, who is running for Congress in the state’s 3rd Congressional District, with a five-figure ad blitz.
The Illinois GOP has sent digital ads, mailers, robocalls and face-to-face warnings to voters.
The state party endorsed Will County board member Mike Fricilone for the GOP nomination in the race against incumbent Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski, who’s facing a primary challenge of his own from progressives Marie Newman and Rush Darwish.
Real estate broker Catherine O’Shea is also running in the Republican primary on March 17.
“Arthur Jones isn’t a Republican, and we’re going to expose people to who he really is and do everything we can to educate Republicans not to vote for Arthur Jones,” Illinois GOP chairman Tim Schneider told The Chicago Sun Times. “We’re going to do everything we can to distance ourselves from this neo-Nazi who is running as a Republican.”
One ad has a photo of Jones with the words “Arthur Jones Is Not a Republican. Arthur Jones Is a Nazi. Seriously. Vote No on Arthur Jones on March 17th.” A digital ad states, “Say No to the Nazi.”
Jones, 72, who was once a member of the American Nazi Party, received 57,885 votes, losing in 2018 against incumbent Lipinski, as no other Republican entered the primary in the Democratic congressional district.
“If I really believed the Holocaust had taken place, I wouldn’t have joined the Nazi Party,” he told The Daily Southtown last year.
The Republican Jewish Coalition has already come out strong against Jones.
“Like the Illinois GOP, we vehemently oppose Jones’s candidacy. Jones is a Nazi, not a Republican,” RJC spokesperson Neil Strauss previously emailed JNS. “There are two actual Republicans running in this primary, and we look forward to one of them winning the nomination.”
“We strongly opposed Jones in the past,” said Strauss. “We worked with the [Republican National Committee] and the Illinois GOP to make sure Jones had no institutional support.”
