Lipinski Trounces Holocaust-Denying Challenger Art Jones in IL-3

There will be no springtime for Art Jones, the GOP challenger with neo-Nazi leanings who “snookered” his way onto the ballot in Illinois’s 3rd Congressional District. Jones was soundly beaten by incumbent democratic Congressman Dan Lipinski, who sailed his way into a seventh term in the U.S. House.

Lipinski was the projected winner early in the evening, surging ahead of jones within minutes of the polls closing. Unofficial tallies gave Lipinski 155,010 votes. The Holocaust-denying Jones garnered 55,917 votes.

Here is a breakdown of votes by county:

Suburban Cook

Dan Lipinski - 83, 456 (71.2%)
Art Jones - 33,765 (28.8%)

492 out of 500 precincts reporting

Will County

Lipinski - 18,198 (59.90)
Jones - 11,576 (38.11%)
Write-in - 605 (1.99%)

100% of precincts reporting

DuPage County

Lipinski - 331 (65.29%)
Jones - 176 (34.71%)

100% of precincts reporting

Breakdowns of preliminary city votes were not yet available on the Board of Chicago Election Commissioners.

Jones was one of five Republican candidates running in state and national elections in the 2018 midterm election. All of them were expected to lose. The Lyons insurance man who says he represents the interests of white people, collected more votes than other GOP challengers running in dem-heavy congressional districts. Jones outdrew Jimmy Lee Tilman, who went up against U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in Illinois’ 1st Congressional District, and Mike Lorch, who challenged Chuy Garcia for the 4th Congressional District seat.

Jones said he was gratified for the number of voters who “agree with my views.”

“They can’t say they didn’t know who they were voting for,” Jones told the Sun-Times. “You guys in the media made sure of that.”

The FiveThirtyEight polling website gave Lipinski 99 in 100 chance of winning on Tuesday in the 2018 midterm election.

In March, Lipinski warded off progressive challenger Marie Newman by a slender margin of 2,000 votes. Newman beat Lipinski in the suburbs and collar counties, but Lipinski prevailed on the city’s Southwest Side.

Holocaust-denying, perennial candidate Art Jones, a Lyons insurance salesman, ran unopposed in the Republican primary. Jones was tossed off the 2016 ballot when he purportedly photocopied signatures on his nominating petitions. This time around, Jones’ filing papers were in order as he managed to “snooker” his way onto GOP ballot.

Get real-time election results for the IL-03 election after the polls close at 7 p.m.

Lipinski leads the House’s Blue Dog Coalition, a caucus of fiscally conservative Democrats. He also serves on the House transportation committee and says he is interested in "bread and butter" issues, including expanding the middle class, helping small businesses succeed and creating local jobs.

Jones told Patch the eve of the election that his campaign was going well “until Pittsburgh,” when 11 Jews were gunned down last month while worshiping in the Tree of Life Synagogue by a gunman allegedly spewing anti-Semitic slurs.

“The Chicago Tribune has linked me to that nutcase in Pittsburgh just because I don’t believe in the 70-year-old fairy tale of the Holocaust,” Jones alleged. “I don’t associate with people like [Robert Bowers], just law-abiding citizens who don’t want to see the Israeli Lobby turn the United States into a third world hellhole.”

Jones, who supports President Donald Trump, said voters have been misled by squawking about his past associations and “making a big deal about it.”

“The fact that I stand up for interests of white people, that we can’t have,” Jones said.

Lipinski also faced three write-in candidates. Individual vote tallies for the write-ins may not be available for several days.

Dan Lipinski (left) and Art Jones | Provided