Rocky De La Fuente 2016 presidential campaign

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.

Rocky 2016 LLC
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

Map representing the ballot access of De La Fuente's Democratic Primary campaign

  On primary ballot

  On caucus ballot

  Write-in

  Not on ballot

De La Fuente at the "Lesser-Known Candidates Presidential Forum"

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.

De La Fuente seen talking to Jorge Ramos at the venue of the Iowa Brown and Black Forum

A car decorated to advertise Rocky's campaign during the Democratic Primaries

Primaries and Caucus Results

Date	Contest	Votes	Percent	Place	Sources
Feb 9	New Hampshire primary	96	0.04%	8th of 28	[6][7]
March 1	Alabama primary	818	0.20%	4th	[8][9]
	American Samoan caucus	14	5.91%	3rd	[10]
	Arkansas primary	1,684	0.76%	6th	[11][12]
	Massachusetts primary	1,545	0.13%	4th	[13][14]
	Minnesota caucus	53	0.03%	4th	[15]
	Oklahoma primary	2,485	0.74%	7th	[16][17]
	Texas primary	8,429	0.59%	3rd of 8	[18][19]
March 1–8	Democrats Abroad primary	6	0.02%	4th	[20]
March 2	Vermont primary	94	0.06%	4th	[21][22]
March 5	Louisiana primary	1,341	0.43%	8th of 10	[23][24]
March 8	Michigan primary	870	0.07%	4th	[25][26]
	Mississippi primary	481	0.21%	5th	[27][28]
March 15	Illinois primary	1,802	0.09%	6th	[29][30]
	Missouri primary	345	0.05%	6th of 9	[31][32]
	North Carolina primary	3,376	0.30%	4th	[33][34]
	Ohio primary	9,402	0.76%	3rd	[35][36]
March 22	Arizona primary	2,797	0.60%	4th of 6	[37][38]
	Idaho caucus	4	0.02%	3rd	[39][40]
	Utah caucus	22	0.03%	3rd	[41][42]
March 26	Alaskan caucus	1	0.01%	3rd	[43][44]
	Hawaiian caucus	12	0.04%	3rd	[45][46]
April 5	Wisconsin primaryA	18	0.00%	4th	[47]
April 26	Connecticut primary	960	0.29%	3rd	[48][49]
	Delaware primary	1,024	1.09%	3rd	[50][51]
	Maryland primary	3,582	0.39%	3rd	[52][53]
	Pennsylvania primary	14,439	0.86%	3rd	[54][55]
	Rhode Island primary	145	0.12%	4th	[56][57]
May 10	West Virginia primary	1010	0.40%	6th	[58][59]
May 17	Kentucky primary	1,594	0.35%	4th	[60][61]
June 5	Puerto Rico caucus	391	0.44%	3rd	[62]
June 7	California primary	8,453	0.16%	5th of 7	[63][64]
June 14	D.C. primary	213	0.22%	3rd	[65][66]
Total		67,457	0.22%	3rd of 33	[67]

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%

1. 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%

1. 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; 9 years ago (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.org
Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

Ballot access for the American Delta and Reform Party

  On ballot

  Lawsuit pending

  Write-in

  Not on ballot

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

Main article: Statewide opinion polling for the United States presidential election, 2016

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.

Electoral results

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

Main article: 2016 United States presidential election recounts § Nevada

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]

Receipts

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

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

Cash Summary

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

See also: Endorsements for the Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016

Activists

• Deez Nuts^[92]
• Brian Moore^[93]