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
 2016 Democratic presidential primariesCandidateVotes% Hillary Clinton 16,917,853 55.23 Bernie Sanders13,210,55043.13 Martin O'Malley110,4230.36 Rocky De La Fuente  67,468  0.22 Willie Wilson 25,7960.08Paul T. Farrell, Jr.21,6940.07Keith Russell Judd20,3050.07Michael Steinberg20,1260.07Henry Hewes11,0620.04John Wolfe Jr.7,3690.02Star Locke5,2020.02Steve Burke4,8930.02Lawrence "Larry Joe" Cohen2,4070.01Calvis L. Hawes2,0170.01James Valentine1,7260.01Jon Adams4860.00Vermin Supreme2680.00Mark Stewart2360.00David John Thistle2260.00Graham Schwass1430.00Lloyd Thomas Kelso460.00Mark Stewart Greenstein410.00Eric Elbot360.00William D. French 290.00Edward T. O'Donnell, Jr.  26 0.00David Formhals (write-in)  25 0.00Robert Lovitt 220.00William H. McGaughey, Jr.190.00Edward Sonnino170.00Steven Roy Lipscomb150.00Sam Sloan150.00Brock C. Hutton140.00Andrew Daniel "Andy" Basiago (write-in)13 0.00Raymond Michael Moroz80.00Richard Lyons Weil80.00Ignació León Nuñez (write-in)60.00Willie Felix Carter (write-in)30.00Brian James O'Neill, II (write-in)20.00Doug Terry (write-in)1 0.00Kevin Michael Moreau (write-in)0 0.00 Uncommitted101,4810.33 No Preference50,9900.17 scattering48,5760.16Uninstructed Delegation1,4880.00 Total 30,633,131 100.00

 2016 United States presidential electionPresidential candidatePartyPopular voteElectoral voteVice-presidential candidateCountPercentageProjectedActualDonald TrumpRepublican62,984,82845.93306304Mike PenceHillary ClintonDemocratic 65,853,51448.02232227Tim KaineGary JohnsonLibertarian4,489,235 3.2700Bill WeldJill SteinGreen1,457,2261.06%||0||0||Ajamu Baraka
|-
|Evan McMullin||(Independent)||732,273||0.53%||0||0||Mindy Finn
|-
|Darrell Castle||Constitution Party||203,091||0.15%'||0||0||Scott Bradley
|-
|Gloria La Riva||Party for Socialism and Liberation|Socialism and Liberation||74,405||0.05%||0||0||Eugene Puryear
|-
|Rocky De La Fuente||American Delta and Reform||33,136||0.02||0||0||Michael Steinberg
|-
| colspan=2|Other||1,297,332||0.93||0||7||Other''Total137,125,040100.00538538Total

U.S. Senate primaries
 2016 Florida Democratic Senate Primary election resultsCandidateVotes%Patrick Murphy 665,985 58.9 Alan Grayson 199,929 17.7 Pam Keith  173,919 15.5 Rocky De La Fuente 60,810 5.4 Reginald Luster  29,138 2.6 Total 1,129,781 100.00

2018 Senate primaries

 State  Primary type  Date  Votes   %  Winner(s) California  Nonpartisan blanket  June 5  135,279  2.1  Dianne Feinstein, Kevin de León Washington Nonpartisan blanket  Aug 8  5,724  0.34  Maria Cantwell, Susan Hutchison Hawaii Republican  Aug 11  3,075   9.4  Ron Curtis Minnesota  Republican  Aug 14   17,051   5.9  Jim Newberger Vermont  Republican  Aug 14  1,057   2.9  Brooke Paige Wyoming Republican  Aug 21  1,280   1.1  John Barrasso  Florida Republican  Aug 28  187,209   11.4Rick Scott Delaware  Republican  Sep 6  1,998  5.3  Robert Arlett Rhode Island  Republican  Sep 12  3,722  12.3%  Robert Flanders
2020 congressional

References

Other websites
Rocky 2016 campaign website 

Columnist Dave Barry on meeting De La Fuente

Category:1954 births
Category:Living people
Category:2020 United States presidential candidates
Category:2016 United States presidential candidates
Category:Businesspeople from California
Category:Politicians from Florida
Category:Politicians from San Diego
Category:Democratic Party (United States) politicians