Rocky De La Fuente
Personal details
Born	Roque De La Fuente Guerra (1954-10-10) October 10, 1954 (age 63) San Diego, California, U.S.
Political party	Republican (since 2017)
Other political affiliations	Reform (2016) American Delta (2016) Democratic (2016–2017)
Spouse(s)	Katayoun Yazdani (divorced)
Children	5
Website	www.rocky101.com

Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente (born October 10, 1954)^[1] is an American businessman and perennial candidate.^[2][3][4]

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

During the 2018 elections, De La Fuente filed as a candidate for U.S. Senate in nine state primaries, all of which he lost. He campaigned as an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump's immigration policies.^[5]

Early life and education[edit]

De La Fuente was born on October 10, 1954 at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California,^[6] the son of Roque Antonio De La Fuente Alexander^[7] and Bertha Guerra Yzaguirre. His parents raised him in Mexico (Mexico City, Tijuana, Baja California), and in the United States (San Diego, and Anaheim, California). He was educated by his parents and the Legionaries of Christ, the Marist Brothers, the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart, Daughters of the Holy Spirit and the Jesuits. As a youth, De La Fuente attended Saint Catherine's Military Academy in Anaheim, California and then earned a B.S. in physics and mathematics from the Instituto Patria National Autonomous University of Mexico, and studied accounting and business administration at Anahuac University near Mexico City.^[6][8]

Career[edit]

Between 1976 and 1990, De La Fuente acquired 28 automobile franchises from Alfa Romeo, American Motors Corporation, Audi, Cadillac, Chrysler, Daihatsu, Dodge, GMC, Honda, and others.^[6] He also opened three banks, assisted living facilities in Los Angeles and Lemon Grove and eleven currency exchange locations in the United States and Mexico.^[9][10]

In 2004, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued an order barring De La Fuente from participating in an FDIC-insured institution. De La Fuente appealed and the 9th Circuit reversed half the order and advised the FDIC to reconsider its sentence, stating that "De La Fuente's use of [First International Bank] as his personal piggy bank was in shocking disregard of sound banking practices and the law to the detriment of depositors, shareholders, and the public.  Nevertheless, we remand this matter to the Board for it to consider, in light of this disposition, whether this extraordinary sanction remains deserved."^[8][11]

In November 2015, De La Fuente and the city of San Diego reached settlement in a decades-long legal dispute over land-use issues regarding a 312-acre area that De La Fuente is developing in Otay Mesa.^[12]

De La Fuente owns businesses and properties in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, the United States, and Uruguay.^[6]

Political campaigns[edit]

2016 presidential campaign[edit]

De La Fuente at the Lesser-Known Candidates Presidential Forum during his campaign for the Democratic Party nomination, January 2016

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 did not win a single primary or a single delegate to the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

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.^[13] De La Fuente ultimately received over 33,136 votes in the general election, earning him 0.02% of the total popular vote. He failed to win any electoral votes. In the popular vote De La Fuente placed eighth overall, behind the Democratic Party's Hillary Clinton, Republican Party's Donald Trump, Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson, Green Party's Jill Stein, independent Evan McMullin, Constitution Party's Darrell Castle, and Party for Socialism and Liberation's Gloria LaRiva.^[14]

On May 9, 2017, De La Fuente and Stein dismissed their lawsuit against the State of Oklahoma. The focus of the lawsuit was the state's high requirement for petitions, but it was dismissed after Oklahoma eased their requirements.^[15] In February 2018, De La Fuente would go on to win two more court cases slightly easing ballot access requirements in Virginia and Washington.^[16][17]

2016 Senate campaign[edit]

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.^[18][19] 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).

2017 New York City mayoral campaign[edit]

Excerpt from De La Fuente's mayoral campaign material

De La Fuente ran for Mayor of New York City in the 2017 mayoral election. Upon announcing his intention to enter the race, De La Fuente claimed that private polling data shows him defeating Republican candidates Paul Massey and Michel Faulkner.^[20]

De La Fuente's candidacy ran into problems with his lack of residency.^[21]

On March 28, De La Fuente participated in a debate hosted by the Reform Party of New York State (which is not affiliated with the Reform Party of the United States of America) alongside five other mayoral contenders (Kevin Coenen, Mike Tolkin, independent Bo Dietl, Democratic challenger Sal Albanese and Republican Faulkner).^[22]

De La Fuente said that homelessness and affordable housing was the central focuses of his campaign.^[23]

During his campaign, De La Fuente received $600,000 in campaign loans from the New York City Campaign Finance Board. As of July 31, this meant that his campaign had received the second-greatest amount of any campaign in the 2017 mayoral race, behind only Paul Massey, who had received $1,610,000.^[24]

After the suspension of both Michel Faulkner's and Paul Massey's campaigns, De La Fuente was the only remaining opponent to Nicole Malliotakis in the Republican Primary. However, two Malliotakis supporters, with the blessing of her campaign, filed objections to De La Fuente's ballot petition signatures. They argued that hundreds of De La Fuente's signatures were forged. On August 1, the New York City Board of Elections ruled against De La Fuente and in favor of the Malliotakis supporters (Bryan Jung and James Thompson), thus effectively ending De La Fuente's candidacy for the Republican nomination and leaving Malliotakis unopposed for the nomination.^[25][26]

2018 Senate campaigns[edit]

On February 26, 2018 De La Fuente filed to run for the 2018 Senate election in California under the Republican Party to unseat incumbent Dianne Feinstein,^[27] but failed in the June 5 primary. He came ninth place out of a field of 35, garnering 135,109 votes for 2% of the total.^[28] In a primary system where only the top two make it to the final ballot, this ended his candidacy. On August 8, his candidacy for US Senator from Washington state^[29] came to an end in the open primary.^[30]. He also lost primaries in Wyoming,^[31] Hawaii, Minnesota, Vermont, Florida, Delaware, and Rhode Island. His promotional literature said that he chose to run in so many places "to prove just how ludicrous the election process has become,"^[32] although some commentators express doubt about that explanation.^[33]

2020 presidential campaign[edit]

De La Fuente has said that he intends to again seek the Democratic Party nomination in the 2020 presidential election.^[34]

Electoral history[edit]

Presidential elections[edit]

U.S. Senate elections[edit]

2018 Senate primaries

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Rocky campaign website


• 
  Appearances on C-SPAN
  


• Columnist Dave Barry on meeting De La Fuente


• 
  "De La Fuente: The man challenging Clinton, Sanders". WOOD-TV. 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-03-05.