Rocky De La Fuente ran a third-party campaign for the presidency of the United States in the 2016 election. De La Fuente had sought the Democratic Party's nomination during their presidential primaries. De La Fuente did not win any delegates to the 2016 Democratic National Convention, but he came in fourth by total votes received. De La Fuente founded the American Delta Party and ran as its presidential nominee with running mate Michael Steinberg. He was also the presidential nominee of the Reform Party, which had ballot access in Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. He received 33,136 votes in the general election, placing him eighth in the popular vote.

Democratic primary campaign

De La Fuente filed his candidacy for President of the United States with the Federal Election Commission as a Democrat. He identified himself as a progressive Democrat. He said that he was inspired to run after becoming dissatisfied with the slate of candidates, especially Donald Trump, whom he accused of alienating large segments of the population. On immigration, De La Fuente supported a path to citizenship and was against the wall proposed by Donald Trump.

De La Fuente subsequently has said that the reason he opted to seek the Democratic nomination, rather than the Republican nomination, is that he hoped that the Democratic primary's smaller field of candidates would make it easier for him to stand out. The Republican party had 17 candidates, more than three times the number of major candidates who sought the Democratic nomination.

Below is a table of the results of primaries in which De La Fuente competed during the Democratic primaries. The total number of votes De La Fuente received can be found in the Votes column. The rank in which De La Fuente came among candidates/ballot options can be found in the Place column.

+ Primaries and Caucus Results Date Contest VotesPercent Place Sources Feb 9 New Hampshire primary 96 0.04% 8th of 28 March 1 Alabama primary 818 0.20% 4th American Samoan caucus 14 5.91% 3rd Arkansas primary 1,684 0.76% 6th Massachusetts primary 1,545 0.13% 4th Minnesota caucus 53 0.03% 4th Oklahoma primary 2,485 0.74% 7th Texas primary 8,429 0.59% 3rd of 8 March 1–8 Democrats Abroad primary 6 0.02% 4th March 2 Vermont primary 94 0.06% 4th March 5 Louisiana primary 1,341 0.43% 8th of 10 March 8 Michigan primary 870 0.07% 4th Mississippi primary 481 0.21% 5th March 15 Illinois primary 1,802 0.09% 6th Missouri primary 345 0.05% 6th of 9 North Carolina primary 3,376 0.30% 4th Ohio primary 9,402 0.76% 3rd March 22 Arizona primary 2,797 0.60% 4th of 6 Idaho caucus 4 0.02% 3rd Utah caucus 22 0.03% 3rd March 26 Alaskan caucus 1 0.01% 3rd Hawaiian caucus 12 0.04% 3rd April 5 Wisconsin primary 18 0.00% 4th April 26 Connecticut primary 960 0.29% 3rd Delaware primary 1,024 1.09% 3rd Maryland primary 3,582 0.39% 3rd Pennsylvania primary 14,439 0.86% 3rd Rhode Island primary 145 0.12% 4th May 10 West Virginia primary 1010 0.40% 6th May 17 Kentucky primary 1,594 0.35% 4th June 5 Puerto Rico caucus 391 0.44% 3rd June 7 California primary 8,453 0.16% 5th of 7 June 14 D.C. primary 213 0.22% 3rd Total 67,457 0.22% 3rd of 33 A. As a write-in.

Polls De La Fuente was almost entirely excluded from polling for the Democratic Primary. However, he was included in three statewide polls.

Texas Democratic Primary University of Texas / Texas Tribune poll(February 12–19, 2016)CandidatePercentRocky De La Fuente1%Hillary Clinton54%Bernie Sanders44%Martin O'Malley1%Willie Wilson1%Star Locke0%Keith Judd0%Calvin Hawes0%Sample: 324 LVMargin of error: 5.99%

North Carolina Democratic Primary High Point University(January 30-February 4, 2016)CandidatePercentRocky De La Fuente0%Hillary Clinton55%Bernie Sanders29%Martin O'Malley1%Don't Know/Refused15%Sample: 478 LVMargin of error: 4.5%

New Hampshire Democratic Primary Suffolk University poll(January 19–21, 2016)CandidateNumber ofrespondentsPercentRocky De La Fuente10%Bernie Sanders25050%Hillary Clinton20741%Undecided 326%Martin O'Malley92%Other10%Total500100%Sample: 500 LVMargin of error: 4.4%

Third-party general election campaign American Delta Party

De La Fuente founded the American Delta Party leaving United out of its name as a vehicle to continue his campaign into the general election as a third-party candidate. He was nominated as the party's presidential nominee. His running mate was Michael Steinberg of Florida. On August 8, 2016, De La Fuente was named as the presidential nominee of the Reform Party.

American Delta Party held its national convention on September 1, 2016, in Chester Springs, Pennsylvania, and nominated Rocky De La Fuente to run in the United States presidential election representing his party. De La Fuente chose Michael Steinberg as his running mate.

Qualifications De La Fuente gained ballot access to 147 electoral votes in 20 states (Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming). He qualified as a write-in candidate in Arizona, California, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New York, Washington, and West Virginia.

Debates and forums During his campaign for Democratic nomination, De La Fuente was not invited to any of the Democratic Party forums and debates. De La Fuente also did not qualify for any of the presidential debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates. De La Fuente, however, was invited to and participated in the 2016 Free & Equal Elections debate.

After coming in fourth and winning no delegates in the 2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries and after founding the American Delta Party as a vehicle to run for president of the United States with his running mate Michael Steinberg and as he lacked ballot access to the larger states, on October 25, 2016, he participated in a debate hosted by the Free & Equal Elections Foundation and debated against the Constitution Party candidate Darrell Castle and the Party for Socialism and Liberation candidate Gloria LaRiva.

Polls

De La Fuente's general election campaign was included in very few polls.

Nevada - Five-way race Poll sourceDate administered Delta%Democrat%Republican%Libertarian%IAPN (Constitution)%Lead marginSample sizeMargin of errorSuffolk September 27–29, 2016 Rocky De La Fuente 1% Hillary Clinton 44% Donald Trump 38% Gary Johnson 7% Darrell Castle 1% 6 500 ± 4.4%Suffolk August 15–17, 2016 Rocky De La Fuente 1% Hillary Clinton 43.8% Donald Trump 41.6% Gary Johnson 4.8% Darrell Castle 1% 2.2 500 ± 4.4%

Election results De La Fuente received 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 La Riva.

De La Fuente received more votes than any Reform Party presidential nominee since Ralph Nader's 2004 campaign.

Recount effort

On November 30 (in response to Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein's efforts to request recounts in Wisconsin and several other states which Donald Trump won) De La Fuente requested a partial-recount in Nevada (a state which Hillary Clinton won). He considered this effort to be a "counterbalance" at Stein's efforts. De La Fuente paid the $14,000 that was required for him to request for a recount to be held in a sample from 5% of state-precincts. Nevada's partial-recount was completed December 8, finding no significant discrepancies.

Campaign finances Detailed below are the financial statements filled with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) of Rocky 2016 LLC as of November 28, 2016.

+ ReceiptsFinancial SourceAmount (USD)Federal Funds $0Itemized Individual Contributions $13,156Unitemized Individual Contributions $3,887Total Individual Contributions $17,043Party Committees Contributions $0Other Committees Contributions $0Candidate Contributions $0Total Contributions $17,043Transfers from Authorized Committees $0Candidate Loans $7,855,009Other Loans $0Total Loans $7,855,009Offsets to Operating Expenditures $0Fundraising Offsets $0Legal and Accounting Offsets $0Total Offsets $0Other Receipts $0Total Receipts $7,855,009

+ DisbursementsDisbursementsAmount (USD)Operating Expenditures $4,337,137Transfers To Authorized Committees $0Fundraising $3,146,674Exempt Legal and Accounting $385,982Candidate Loan Repayments $0Other Loan Repayments $0Individual Contribution Refunds $0Political Party Contribution Refunds $0Other Committee Contribution Refunds $0Other Disbursements $0Total Disbursements $7,869,794

+ Cash SummaryCategoryAmount (USD)Beginning Cash On Hand $0Current Cash On Hand $2,257Net Contributions $17,043Net Operating Expenditures $4,339,360Debts/Loans Owed By Campaign $7,855,009Debts/Loans Owed To Campaign $0

Endorsements

Activists Deez Nutshttps://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=226979080969303&id=142303999436812 Brian Moore

References

External links

Rocky 2016 campaign website

Columnist Dave Barry on meeting De La Fuente