Arthur Jones is a former Nazi Party member who ran for Milwaukee mayor in 1976. He just won an Illinois primary.

Lainey Seyler
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Arthur Jones, 70, a former member of the Nazi Party and outspoken Holocaust denier, made news Tuesday when he won the Republican Party Primary in Illinois' Third Congressional District, which includes parts of Chicago and its southwestern suburbs.

It wasn't his first run for office. In 1976, when he was 28 and still a member of the National Socialist White People's (Nazi) Party, he ran for mayor of Milwaukee.

He received 4,765 votes in the primary and came in fourth out of seven candidates in that race. Attempts were made to block Jones' name from the ballot.

Incumbent Henry Maier won the 1976 primary with approximately 60,000 votes. In order to prevent Jones from making the final ballot in the nonpartisan race, Jewish organizations threw support behind Jan Olson, who came in second. Roman Blenski, a perennial candidate, finished third with 5,545 votes. 

Members of the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi/white power organization, held a rally at the West Allis City Hall in 2011. Arthur Jones, a  member of the neo-Nazi group who said he once ran for mayor of Milwaukee, explained his hate-filled point of view to the media.

Jones was born in Beloit and attended the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. 

In March 1976, just one month after the mayoral primary, Jones was convicted of disorderly conduct and was fined $50 for a verbal altercation with a server at a George Webb on Appleton Ave. in Milwaukee.  

While at UW-Whitewater, Jones participated in the Young Republicans and a Nationalist Socialist student group. He founded a conservative newspaper on the campus, according to The New York Times.

The Republican Party of Illinois has distanced itself from Jones, who ran unopposed in Tuesday's primary. The district hasn't been represented by a Republican since 1975. Incumbent Dan Lipinski won the Democratic primary.