Later (fascist) political career
By the mid-1930s, Jenkins' politics had taken a fierce turn to fascism.
1935 Chicago mayoral candidacy
In 1935, Jenkins ran for mayor of Chicago as an independent candidate. Jenkins still promoted himself as a "progressive" candidate. [10] [11] However, he adopted outright fascist and antisemitic politics and now stood in fierce opposition to such progressive causes as labor movements. [12]
Jenkins' run was supported by his Third Party, which was an effort to launch a new political party. The party claimed itself to be spun-off from the progressive Republican movement. [13] The party, which intended to use "U.S., Unite" as its national slogan and utilize the buffalo as its mascot, sought to use Jenkins' candidacy as a national launchpad. [1] [13] [14] However, Third Party was regarded to be "openly fascist". [12] The July 10, 1935 edition of the American Guardian newspaper wrote that Jenkins had,
Established contact with the Chicago Nazi organization, has appeared on platforms with uniformed Nazis at their official meetings, is openly anti-Semitic and has announced as part of his policy the formation of highly militarized storm troops to defend and protect the interests of his party. The Jenkins [Third Party] is also anti-labor, Jenkins having pescribed the lamp post hanging as the cure for all labor "agitators". [12]
By the time of this campaign, Jenkins was openly very antisemitic. [14] [15] During his campaign, Jenkins published a number of antisemitic pieces. [16]
The platform of the Third Party-backed slate of independent candidates in the 1935 Chicago municipal election was to create a city manager position in the city, to adopt the city commission-style of government in Chicago, to create jobs for the head of family of 100,000 households, to eliminate taxes in the city, and to end "corrupt elections". [17]
Jenkins placed third of three candidates in the election with 87,726 votes. He received 8.34% of the vote, to incumbent Democrat Edward Joseph Kelly's 75.84% and Republican nominee Emil C. Wetten's 15.83%. [18]
Union Party and 1936 U.S. Senate candidacy
Soon after the mayoral election, in March 1936 Jenkins declared his intention to run in the 1936 United States presidential election as the Third Party's nominee. [19] However, the Third Party merged into the Union Party, which was backing William Lemke's presidential candidacy. [1] [15] [14] As leader of the Union Party, Lemke had first approached the Third Party during the mayoral election about merging their efforts to establish a third major political party. [12] Jenkins became the leader of the Illinois state chapter of the Union Party [20] and served as the director of Lemke's Union Party candidacy in the presidential election. [21] [22] Jenkins also ran as the party's nominee in the 1936 U.S. Senate election in Illinois. [1] [15] [14] Jenkins placed a distant third, receiving 93,696 votes. This gave him 2.47% of the vote to incumbent Democrat J. Hamilton Lewis's 56.47% and Republican nominee Otis F. Glenn's 40.72% [23]
Continued fascist activism
Jenkins spoke in support of the political views of Adolf Hitler at a German American Bund convention held August 8, 1937 in Kenosha, Wisconsin. [24] In 1938, Jenkins self-published a book titled The Republic Reclaimed which presented his views that Jewish people were at fault for most of the world's problems. [25] The book praised Mussolini and Italian fascists as well as Hitler and German Nazi fascists, containing a chapter on Adolf Hitler titled "Hitler Greatest German in All History". [26] The book predicted that there would be a "man hunt" against the "traitors" he alleged were "selling the Republic to Jew power". [27]
1938 U.S Senate candidacy
In 1938, Jenkins ran unsuccessfully in the Democratic Party's U.S. Senate primary. He placed a distant third, receiving 32,808 votes. He received 2.04% of the vote to Scott W. Lucas's 49.92% and Michael L. Igoe's 45.23%. [28]
Later activities
Jenkins' pro-Nazi work received attention from Chicago Times reporters and brothers James J. Metcalfe and John C. Metcalfe, both of whom went undercover in the American Nazi groups to report on their activities. In their 1938 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Jenkins' activities were discussed and evidence related to Jenkins was entered in to the congressional record. [29] [30] [31]
Jenkins associated himself with Francis Parker Yockey. [32]
By 1941, Jenkins worked with Elizabeth Dilling to run what the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) described in a memorandum as a "clearinghouse for anti-Semitic material". Through this operation, in 1941, they anonymously distributed in numerous cities a printing that the ADL dubbed the "Uncle Sam crucifixion circular" or the "new pro-Nazi circular" which portrayed several prominent Jewish figures as being among those involved in a conspiracy to bring the United States into World War II, and urged the United States to remain neutral. Per the findings of Maurice Fagan, the executive director of the Philadelphia Anti-Defamation Committee, the circular was the "brainchild" of Jenkins. ADL investigators found that John Winter of Chicago had printed the circular for them. A second circular surfaced soon after. Evidence found by ADL investigators indicated that the artwork featured in both circulars were likely created by artist Gustave A. Brand, who was the former city treasurer of Chicago. [33]
