Rocky De La Fuente 2016 presidential campaign
Third-party campaign for President of the United States
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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.[2] He received 33,136 votes in the general election, placing him eighth in the popular vote.
| |
| Campaign | 2016 United States presidential election |
|---|---|
| Candidate | Rocky De La Fuente |
| Affiliation | Democratic Party American Delta Party Reform Party |
| Status | Lost election: November 8, 2016 |
| Headquarters | San Diego, California[1] |
| Key people | Seven Wendroff (campaign treasurer)[1] |
| Receipts | US$7,351,270 (9/30/2016[1]) |
| Slogan | We The People |
| Website | |
| rocky2016.com (archived - November 7, 2016) | |
Democratic primary campaign
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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.[3][4]
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.[5] 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.
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- 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.[68]
Texas Democratic Primary
| University of Texas / Texas Tribune poll (February 12–19, 2016)[68] | |
| Candidate | Percent |
|---|---|
| Rocky De La Fuente | 1% |
| Hillary Clinton | 54% |
| Bernie Sanders | 44% |
| Martin O'Malley[a] | 1% |
| Willie Wilson | 1% |
| Star Locke | 0% |
| Keith Judd | 0% |
| Calvin Hawes | 0% |
| Sample: 324 LV Margin of error: 5.99% | |
- Martin O'Malley had already dropped-out of the race, having suspended his campaign on February 1, 2016.
North Carolina Democratic Primary
| High Point University (January 30-February 4, 2016)[68] | |
| Candidate | Percent |
|---|---|
| Rocky De La Fuente | 0% |
| Hillary Clinton | 55% |
| Bernie Sanders | 29% |
| Martin O'Malley[a] | 1% |
| Don't Know/Refused | 15% |
| Sample: 478 LV Margin of error: 4.5% | |
- Martin O'Malley dropped-out during the period in which this poll was conducted, suspending his campaign on February 1, 2016.
New Hampshire Democratic Primary
| Suffolk University poll (January 19–21, 2016)[68] | ||
| Candidate | Number of respondents |
Percent |
|---|---|---|
| Rocky De La Fuente | 1 | 0% |
| Bernie Sanders | 250 | 50% |
| Hillary Clinton | 207 | 41% |
| Undecided | 32 | 6% |
| Martin O'Malley | 9 | 2% |
| Other | 1 | 0% |
| Total | 500 | 100% |
| Sample: 500 LV Margin of error: 4.4% | ||
Third-party general election campaign
American Delta Party
American Delta Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | ADP |
| Founder | Rocky De La Fuente |
| Founded | 2016 |
| Membership (June 1, 2017) | 731 (Delaware)[69] |
| Ideology | Social progressivism Fiscal responsibility Electoral reform |
| Political position | Center |
| Seats in the Senate | 0 / 100 |
| Seats in the House | 0 / 435 |
| Governorships | 0 / 50 |
| State upper house seats | 0 / 1,972 |
| State lower house seats | 0 / 5,411 |
| Website | |
| americandeltaparty | |
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.[70][71][72] He was nominated as the party's presidential nominee. His running mate was Michael Steinberg of Florida.[73] On August 8, 2016, De La Fuente was named as the presidential nominee of the Reform Party.[74]
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).[75] He qualified as a write-in candidate in Arizona, California, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Nebraska, New York, Washington, and West Virginia.[76][77][78][79]
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.[80]
Polls
De La Fuente's general election campaign was included in very few polls.
Nevada - Five-way race
| Poll source | Date administered | Delta | % | Democrat | % | Republican | % | Libertarian | % | IAPN (Constitution) | % | Lead margin | Sample size | Margin of error |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suffolk[81] | 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 [82][83][84] | 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.[85][86]
De La Fuente received more votes than any Reform Party presidential nominee since Ralph Nader's 2004 campaign.
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote | Electoral vote |
Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Percentage | Vice-presidential candidate | Home state | Electoral vote | ||||
| Donald Trump | Republican | New York | 62,984,825 | 46.09% | 304 | Mike Pence | Indiana | 304 |
| Hillary Rodham Clinton | Democratic | New York | 65,853,516 | 48.18% | 227 | Tim Kaine | Virginia | 227 |
| Gary Johnson | Libertarian | New Mexico | 4,489,221 | 3.28% | 0 | Bill Weld | Massachusetts | 0 |
| Jill Stein | Green | Massachusetts | 1,457,216 | 1.07% | 0 | Ajamu Baraka | Illinois | 0 |
| Evan McMullin | Independent | Utah | 731,788 | 0.54% | 0 | Mindy Finn | District of Columbia | 0 |
| Darrell Castle | Constitution | Tennessee | 203,010 | 0.15% | 0 | Scott Bradley | Utah | 0 |
| Rocky De La Fuente | American Delta Party & Reform Party | California | 33,136 | 0.02% | 0 | Michael Steinberg | Florida | 0 |
| Other | 736,450 | 0.53% | — | Other | — | |||
| Total | 131,313,820 | 100% | 538 | 538 | ||||
| Needed to win | 270 | 270 | ||||||
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.[87][88][89][90]
Campaign finances
Detailed below are the financial statements filled with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) of Rocky 2016 LLC as of November 28, 2016.[91]
| Financial Source | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Federal Funds | $0 |
| Itemized Individual Contributions | $13,156 |
| Unitemized Individual Contributions | $3,887 |
| Total Individual Contributions | $17,043 |
| Party Committees Contributions | $0 |
| Other Committees Contributions | $0 |
| Candidate Contributions | $0 |
| Total Contributions | $17,043 |
| Transfers from Authorized Committees | $0 |
| Candidate Loans | $7,855,009 |
| Other Loans | $0 |
| Total Loans | $7,855,009 |
| Offsets to Operating Expenditures | $0 |
| Fundraising Offsets | $0 |
| Legal and Accounting Offsets | $0 |
| Total Offsets | $0 |
| Other Receipts | $0 |
| Total Receipts | $7,855,009 |
| Disbursements | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Operating Expenditures | $4,337,137 |
| Transfers To Authorized Committees | $0 |
| Fundraising | $3,146,674 |
| Exempt Legal and Accounting | $385,982 |
| Candidate Loan Repayments | $0 |
| Other Loan Repayments | $0 |
| Individual Contribution Refunds | $0 |
| Political Party Contribution Refunds | $0 |
| Other Committee Contribution Refunds | $0 |
| Other Disbursements | $0 |
| Total Disbursements | $7,869,794 |
| Category | Amount (USD) |
|---|---|
| Beginning Cash On Hand | $0 |
| Current Cash On Hand | $2,257 |
| Net Contributions | $17,043 |
| Net Operating Expenditures | $4,339,360 |
| Debts/Loans Owed By Campaign | $7,855,009 |
| Debts/Loans Owed To Campaign | $0 |
Endorsements
Activists
