rumitoid

The former head of the American Nazi Party ran for the Republican nomination of Congress in Illinois’ 3rd Congressional District. No Republican stepped up to oppose him.

On Tuesday, despite his vocal Holocaust denial, his anti-Semitic rhetoric, and his white supremacist views, 20,339 Illinois Republicans, according to preliminary totals, cast their ballots for Arthur Jones.

Jones’ Nazi-sympathies were not a secret going into election day. His campaign website features a slideshow of pictures of him speaking at white nationalist events. He is a perennial candidate who has previously run for U.S. House, Chicago alderman, and mayor of Chicago, and even mayor of Milwaukee. Chicago media extensively covered the race. The Anti-Defamation League warned voters of his record. The chairman of Illinois Republican Party even disavowed him, saying “The Illinois Republican Party and our country have no place for Nazis like Arthur Jones. We strongly oppose his racist views and his candidacy for any public office, including the 3rd Congressional District.”

Still, a stunning portion of the GOP primary electorate opted to cast their ballot for Jones rather than nobody. This includes, according to unofficial totals as of Wednesday morning, 13,158 voters in suburban Cook County (more than 70 percent of 18,595 GOP primary ballots cast), 4,093 voters in Will County, 3,023 voters in the City of Chicago, and 65 voters in DuPage County.

While the National Republican Congressional Committee, the campaign arm of the House GOP, dismissed Jones last month as “a fringe candidate who has been doing this for over a decade with with no real connection to the GOP,” his campaign platform mirrors President Trump’s agenda. Jones’ campaign website promises to “put America first” with border protections, the elimination of “Sanctuary Cities”, no “amnesty for illegal aliens,” gun rights, and a repeal of the Affordable Care Act.

GmanTerry

Hillary ran under the full support of the American Communist Party. Candidates really have no control over who endorses them.

acknowledgeurma

I wouldn't read too much into this; you might recall, two LaRouche won Illinois Democratic primaries in the 1980s.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/03/20/us/2-conservative-extremists-upset-democrats-in-the-illinois-primary.html

cold iron Loc: White House

Seems the one calling the Tea Pot Black is a Black Kettle. You have no idea what you're talking about. Is the mayor of Chicago giving you talking points?
If you take the time and look up the commie Democrat party's platform you will see the American Communist Party is in there.
Get back under your rock.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

I do not agree with Rumitoid 99.999999 percent of the time, but this time he has it right. Arthur Jones is a bona fides Neo Nazi. On his 2012 campaign page he actually provides information on why he thinks the Holocaust was unreal, why Jews are the root of all evil in the world and so on. Here is just one of his quotes: "As far as I'm concerned, the Holocaust is nothing more than an international extortion racket by the Jews," Jones said. "It's the blackest lie in history. Millions of dollars are being made by Jews telling this tale of woe and misfortune in books, movies, plays and TV." Here is a link to his website: http://artjonesforcongressman.com/holocaust/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://web.archive.org/web/20160514115932/http://artjonesforcongressman.com/holocaust/


You are right, candidates have no control over who supports or endorses them.

acknowledgeurma

I suspect that most of the votes Jones got were from people whose only knowledge of Jones was his name on the Republican primary ballot. Since the widespread use of primaries to select candidates became standard, I don't think parties have had much control over candidate selection. The 3rd Illinois District is probably so heavily Democratic that no reputable Republican would bother to seek the party's nomination. I wouldn't make a big deal out of this result, as embarrassing as it might be, I don't think it says much about the typical Republican.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

I agree, they voted for a party and not the individual.

rumitoid

Please give some site to that the Communist Party supported Hillary. The subject is not about having no control over who endorses a candidate. The candidate is a Nazi. It makes no difference the GOP did not support him; over 20,000 Republicans voted for a Nazi.

rumitoid

That tells a lot about your Party. Will there be more? If a Communist were the only Republican candidate, would you vote for him or her? I would venture if a Communist was the only choice in the same race, he may get a few hundred votes.

Crayons Loc: St Jo, Texas

Sounds Good To Me...Could care less who ran on this platform; I'd vote for it.

If it takes a Real "National Socialist" to clean it up, and afterwards a conservative or an independent can come in and do the Final Mop Up; I'm all for it.

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

I see myself as a conservative.... however, I do not necessarily vote on party line. I research the parties asking me to hire them to represent my interests at local, state, or federal levels. Most of the time, Republicans fit my qualification tests but that is not a 100 percent down the line. I have voted for a Democrat, many years ago. In this last election, I would have liked to have seen better people nominated on both sides. In the end, a businessman seemed to be better qualified to lead our nation from poverty to prosperity, something that I could not see in Clinton as she gave all indications of following the same guidelines set out by the obama administration and I did not see those policies as a positive way forward for America and I definitely did not see those policies improving my personal expectations for growth. As for your question, a Communist mindset and world view does not support the Conservative or a Republican views, anyone who supports capitalism and individual property ownership is not a communist. Republicans, if nothing else, historically strongly support capitalism and personal ownership of property. This also separates Democrats from Republicans, as they (Democrats) seem to believe what I own belongs to those they wish to financially and emotionally support. Ergo, if either party were predisposed to vote for a known Communist candidate, it would be Democrats.

Do keep in mind, I speak only for myself. There are individuals on both sides and even those in the middle, who vote on party lines without regards to a candidate's education, world views or even their tolerance for individuality. So, I agree given the current dissatisfaction with leaders, a Communist would probably fair well in an election. Certainly they would get the votes that Bernie Sanders accumulated.... and he had a fairly large voter pool until he was undermined and forced to drop out of the race. Sanders, if you recall, was a "Socialist" which in many ways is a Communist in an expensive suit.

Big Kahuna

And the demonrats have been voting for known communists and radical islamists for the last 20 years so I guess your side get's to see the other side if the coin now.

crazylibertarian Loc: Florida by way of New York & Rhode Island

And CPUSA (The Communist Party of The United States of America) ran no candidate in 2008 & 2012 but instead threw its support behind Barack H. Obama.

And the media made no hay out of the fact that BHO kicked off his political career in the house of revolutionary gangsters Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

There's a lot more.

cold iron Loc: White House

It's sad that so many Americans have lost there way and care not for her future.

calamityang

Let's hope enough of the 20,000 wake up before the election. There will always be the real core that believe a Nazi is better than a Democrat,
but I don't expect to see that in Illinois.