Rocky De La Fuente

Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente (born October 10, 1954) is an American businessman, political activist, and politician.

He was the unsuccessful nominee of the Reform Party and that of his self-created American Delta Party for President of the United States in the 2016 election. De La Fuente was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination in Florida's 2016 election for United States Senator and  for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 primaries.

In May 2019, De La Fuente announced his plans to run for the presidency again, seeking the Republican nomination challenging incumbent President Donald Trump.

Early life
De La Fuente was born to Roque Antonio De La Fuente and Bertha Guerra Izaguirre on October 10, 1954 in San Diego, California. He studied at  National Autonomous University of Mexico and studied Accounting & Business Administration at Anahuac University.

Career
Between 1976 and 1990, De La Fuente had bought automobile dealerships from Alfa Romeo, American Motor Corporation, Audi, Cadillac, Chrysler, Daihatsu, Dodge, GMC, Honda, and others.

In 2004, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued an order barring De La Fuente from participating in an FDIC-insured institution. De La Fuente went to court and the case was resolved.

He owns businesses and properties in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, United States, and Uruguay.

Political Campaigns

2016 presidential 
De La Fuente ran a presidential campaign in the 2016 election. De La Fuente sought the Democratic Party's nomination during their presidential primaries. De La Fuente's campaign came in Third behind Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

De La Fuente founded the American Delta Party and ran as that party's nominee with his running mate Michael Steinberg and was nominated as the presidential candidate of the Reform Party which had ballot access in Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota and Mississippi.

2016 Senate campaign
On June 20, 2016, De La Fuente paid the $10,440 qualifying fee to run for the Democratic nomination of the 2016 Senate election in Florida to decide the Democratic nominee for the Senate seat occupied by Republican Marco Rubio. He competed with Patrick Murphy, Alan Grayson, Pam Keith, and Reginald Luster for the nomination. Murphy won the nomination; De La Fuente came in fourth-place out of five candidates, receiving 60,606 votes (5.38% of the overall vote).

2018 Senate Campaigns 
In 2018, De La Fuente, ran for US Senate in seven Republican primaries and the California and Washington open primaries to show how problematic the current election process was. He lost the primaries in Wyoming (1,280 votes, 1.1% of the vote), Hawaii (3,065 votes, 9.4% of the vote ), Minnesota (17,051 votes, 5.9% of the vote), Vermont (1,057 votes, 2.9% of the vote), Delaware (1,998 votes, 5.3% of the vote), and Rhode Island (3,722 votes, 12.3% of the vote). In Florida, he got 11.4% of the vote against Republican Gov. Rick Scott. He also filed to run for the 2018 Senate election in California under the Republican Party to unseat incumbent Dianne Feinstein, but failed in the June 5 primary.

2020 presidential campaign

On January 9, 2017, De La Fuente announced his plans to run for president again for the Democratic nomination in 2020. He soon filed to run for the Republican nomination. As of September 30, 2019, he had raised $6,735 from outside sources and had loaned his own campaign $10.18 million. He has qualified as a candidate in Alabama, Delaware, Vermont, Arkansas, New Hampshire, Colorado, and Texas.

On July 30, De La Fuente filed a federal lawsuit against the new California law that says no one can be on a presidential primary ballot unless he or she reveals the last five years of federal income tax returns. On August 6, 2019, he filed a brief on it.

2020 congressional
De La Fuente ran as a Republican in the campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for California's 21st district. (Unlike most other states, California has no law prohibiting simultaneously running for the presidency and for Congress.) His son Ricardo ran for the same seat as a Democrat. Neither De La Fuente lives in the district. Rocky felt that his candidacy would help his son's chances of getting the seat, which was the outcome he desired. Neither De La Fuente succeeded in this primary, coming in third (Ricardo) and fourth (Rocky) in a four-candidate jungle primary in which the top two vote-getters compete in the general election. However, on the same day, Ricardo, who had previously run for the House from California's 34th and Florida's 23rd districts, won the Democratic primary for U.S. representative for Texas's 27th district, but went on to lose the general election.

Personal life
De La Fuente married Katayoun Yazdani.

De La Fuente has five children. De La Fuente has a stated goal of creating a political dynasty. Two of his sons have also sought office.

His son Ricardo "Ricky" De La Fuente has sought several congressional seats. He first ran as a Democrat in the 2017 California's 34th congressional district special election. He then, in 2018, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Florida's 24th US congressional district. In 2020 he unsuccessfully ran as a Democrat in the California's 21st US congressional district (competing against his father, who ran unsuccessfully as a Republican) and successfully won the Democratic nomination for Texas's 27th US congressional district (where he hopes to become a resident). In 2020, Ricardo was also originally running for the Democratic nomination in Florida's 24th US congressional district.

In 2020, his son Roque De La Fuente III entered the Democratic presidential primaries in Arizona, California,  Colorado, Idaho, Missouri, New Hampshire, Texas, and Utah.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

U.S. Senate primaries

2018 Senate primaries

2020 congressional

References

Other websites
Rocky 2016 campaign website 

Columnist Dave Barry on meeting De La Fuente

1954 births
Living people
2020 United States presidential candidates
2016 United States presidential candidates
Businesspeople from California
Politicians from Florida
Politicians from San Diego, California
US Democratic Party politicians