CONNECTICUT, USA — When democrats and republicans head to the polls for Connecticut's Primary Teusday, some in the GOP may be surprised to see another name below President Donald Trump's.
Roque “Rocky” De La Fuente made it onto Connecticut's GOP primary ballot. De La Fuente is a California businessman who has unsuccessfully ran for president before. Earlier this year his son also campaigned for the democratic nomination.
De La Fuente wasn't always under the republican umbrella. In 2016 he ran as a democrat for president, as well as for U.S. Senate in Florida. In 2018 he was on the ballot in nine states' primaries for U.S. Senate.
De La Fuente received the nomination for the Reform Party in June.
In March the Connecticut GOP Chairman J.R. Romano urged De La Fuente to drop out of the race. The CT GOP even had an email campaign urging republicans to call De La Fuente to convince him to drop out.
The presidential nominations for each party have already been decided. Connecticut's primary is the last in the United States after it was postponed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
After Senator Bernie Sanders dropped out of the democratic race for President in April, Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said a primary didn't "make sense" at the time.
"The results are now predetermined: there is only one active candidate remaining on the Democratic side, and one candidate has mathematically clinched the nomination on the Republican side," Merrill said on April 8. The state would later push back the primary to June and then to August 11.
