A member of the American Nazi Party has become a lobbyist in Washington's Capitol Hill for the first time, ABC News reported on Friday.

The 55-year old party member, John Bowles, told ABC his status as a lobbyist was something the party wanted to “try out for the first time and see if it flies.”

Open gallery view A screenshot of the American Nazi Party website, April 14, 2012.

“I always tell my fellow Americans that they need to practice their constitutional rights or their rights will one day be eroded,” ABC quoted Bowles as saying.

“Lobbying is one way to do that, to try to get your point across to the elected officials in Congress.”

According to the report, the party member said he hopes to speak with lawmakers on a number of issues, including ballot access, unemployment, budgets and immigration.

Open gallery view U.S. neo-Nazis at the annual Ku Klux Klan parade in Pulaski Tennessee, April 14, 2012. Credit: Natasha Mozgovaya

“I’m not going to go in and shove a swastika in their face,” he told ABC. “I use a very careful and objective approach. There might be some congressmen who crumple up the paper and some who say ‘this is interesting,’" he said, adding that, if they don’t hold his politics against him, “I won’t hold anything against them.”

The official website for American Nazi Party lobbyists in U.S. congress said, "On April 11, 2012, a longtime American Nazi Party (ANP) activist initated a new tactical step and became a registered 24/7 lobbyist in Congress."

Open gallery view Books at the annual Ku Klux Klan parade bookfair in Pulaski Tennessee, April 14, 2012. Credit: Natasha Mozgovaya

"This is the first time any American National Socialist has done this and propels the American Nazi Party into the lead as a now first-class minor political party in America, i.e., pressuring and influencing the elected officials of the House of Representatives and the Senate regarding the self-determination rights of White people in America," the website said.

The American Nazi Party was founded in 1959 by veteran U.S. Navy Commander George Lincoln Rockwell, and is based in Arlington, Virginia, according to the party's website.

The party's website says that it is engages in "a very serious struggle that we are involved in for the very existence of our White Nation of people."



