Ted Cruz urges voters in Illinois to pick the Democrat over 'bigoted fool' Nazi candidate

(Image credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) would like Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to keep his advice for Illinois voters to himself.

In the state's 3rd congressional district, the Republican candidate is Arthur Jones, a Holocaust denier and former leader of the American Nazi Party. He ran in the primary unopposed, and on Friday, Cruz tweeted that he found it "horrific" that Jones made the ballot. "To the good people of Illinois, you have two reasonable choices: write in another candidate, or vote for the Democrat," he said. "This bigoted fool should receive ZERO votes."

When asked about this on Tuesday, Rauner said he disagreed with telling people to vote for the Democrat over Jones, and instead called on Jones to drop out of the race. "The one thing I will say is the person, that guy, Johnson or whatever his name is, should not be on the ballot," Rauner said, adding, "there is no room in our politics for a person like that." Assuming he doesn't follow the governor's advice, Jones will face Democratic Rep. Dan Lipinski in the November election.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.