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Political bigamy? South Texas congressional nominee just filed to run for yet another seat, in Miami

DallasNews / Paul Cobler / April 29, 2020

The Democratic nominee for Congress in Texas' 27th District is also running for Congress in Florida, filing the paperwork just over a month after losing yet a third congressional bid in California, where he actually lives.

In Texas, Ricardo De La Fuente will face two-term Rep. Michael Cloud, a Victoria Republican, in the Nov. 3 general election.

In Florida, he's challenging five-term incumbent Frederica Wilson, a Miami Democrat, in the Aug. 18 primary. That's a rematch. She beat him 84-16 in the 2018 primary.

"I'm following the rules, I've talked to my election lawyers and everything I'm doing is legal," he said.

De La Fuente, 30, is a self-described entrepreneur from California. He isn't registered to vote in Texas, and didn't vote in the March 3 primaries in California or Texas — a day he appeared on ballots in both states. He's registered to vote in San Diego County in California, where he last voted in 2018.

He campaigned minimally before the Texas primary, but won 61-39. Federal campaign records show that he did not report spending any money on the race, apart from his $3,125 filing fee.

Last Wednesday, he filed to run in Florida — seven weeks and one day after winning a nomination in Texas, and losing in California.

They're both coast districts, but otherwise have little in common. Florida's 24th District runs along Biscayne Bay and the Intracoastal Waterway. Texas' 27th District includes Corpus Christi and much of the Gulf Coast.

The Miami-Dade Democratic Party wasn't aware that Wilson's challenger is already a nominee in Texas, and had taken a shot in California, too.

"It must be expensive to simultaneously seek three congressional offices," said chairman Steve Simeonidis. "While Americans have a right to waste their money as they see fit, there are certainly more effective ways at achieving policy goals than pretending to live in three places at once. It would almost seem as though policy is secondary to ego in these endeavors."

By phone, De La Fuente reiterated his commitment to challenging Cloud in Texas, but said he also wanted to run in Florida because he really wants to serve in Congress, inspire Hispanic voters and increase his profile across the country.

"My life goal is to get more Latinos elected, so I'm going into districts where there's a huge community of Latinos — like southern Florida, California, Texas," he said. "Eventually, we're going to build enough name ID and get elected."

There are no signs online of his campaign in Florida. His Twitter bio, campaign's website and Facebook page all indicate only that he's running for the Texas seat.

In California, De La Fuente ran for the U.S. House in the 21st District, in the San Joaquin Valley. The state has an unusual "jungle primary" in which candidates of all parties compete together, with the top two moving on to the general election.

De La Fuente drew 9.2%, running as a Democrat and spending nothing beyond the filing fee. His father drew 2.4% as a Republican. The winners: the freshman Democratic incumbent and the three-term Republican he unseated in 2018.

Being a perennial candidate is a sort of family business.

De La Fuente's father and brother are both running for president, from different parties.

The father, listed on the Texas GOP primary ballot as Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente Guerra, collected 7,563 votes, or 0.37%, getting trounced by President Donald Trump. As the 2016 nominee of the American Delta Party, which Rocky created to make it easier to get on ballots, he drew 33,000 votes nationwide.

The brother, Roque "Rocky" De La Fuente, collected 5,469 votes in the Texas Democrat primary, or 0.26%.

The brother running for Congress in Texas and Florida said he views the effort to win a U.S. House seat as a step toward the presidency.

He'll be old enough to run for that office in 2024.

"I've always been attracted to politics," he said. "I've always been attracted to making that impact, and I feel right now that politics is where I can make the best impact."

Article I section 2 of the U.S. Constitution sets out the requirements to serve in the House: 25 or older, a U.S. citizen for seven years and, "when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen."

That would seem to preclude running in two states simultaneously.

Election experts consulted this week hadn't heard of anyone trying, once they'd won a nomination. If he loses the Florida primary, the issue is moot, and it appears that he doesn't have to choose before then.

Rick Hasen, a professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine, who runs a widely consulted blog on election law, said candidates running for office in states they don't live in isn't all that uncommon. He couldn't think of any who won, though.

"People are reluctant to vote for someone to be their representative who doesn't live in their area and they don't know," he said. "These serial candidates are really in it to get some attention or for the fun of it, rather than to run a serious campaign."

Both races are uphill battles.

De La Fuente's connections to the Texas district are tenuous. He said his family owns apartments in Victoria.

Cloud won reelection in 2018 with 60% of the vote and has $356,000 in his campaign account. The Florida seat is overwhelmingly Democratic. Hillary Clinton received 83% of the vote in 2016. Wilson has a warchest of $297,000.

"Like 99.9% of the people in our communities here in South Texas, I've never met Mr. De La Fuente," Cloud said. "But it is hard to imagine that someone who lives and ran for Congress in California and is also running in Florida is serious about serving the 27th Congressional District of Texas."

The Wilson campaign declined to comment. During the 2018 campaign, she told the Miami Herald: "I've never heard of him. I just know I can't see him coming to District 24 to campaign."

The Texas Democratic Party declined to weigh in on the oddity of having one of its nominees hedging bets by running for the same office in another state.

"Ricardo De La Fuente has met all eligibility requirements [under] the Constitution to be eligible to run in the state of Texas," said party spokesman Abhi Rahman. "The Texas Democratic Party expects all of our nominees to work hard, earn the trust of voters, and get out the vote. The ball is in his court."

Charlie Jackson, a Corpus Christi businessman who lost the March primary to De La Fuente, did not respond to requests for comment about his rival's new campaign in Florida.

De La Fuente is preparing to spend money like a serious candidate, loaning himself more than $300,000 for the Texas campaign, according to FEC data, and hiring a campaign manager based in Corpus Christi.

The coronavirus pandemic interrupted plans to campaign in person in Texas, he said, but he plans to distribute protective masks in Texas and Florida in coming weeks.

He posted a video of himself handing out masks in San Diego on his campaign's Facebook page and website last week.

"If I had to choose between Texas or Florida, I think if I was able to win in Texas and generate enough buzz to flip a red district blue, I would represent Texas," De La Fuente said. "I have no problem launching two congressional campaigns simultaneously, and I'm going to build a team in both."