He was educated by his parents and the Legionaries of Christ, the Marist Brothers, the Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart, Daughters of the Holy Spirit and the Jesuits.

[12] In 2004, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation issued an order barring De La Fuente from participating in any FDIC-insured institution.

[22] In February 2018, De La Fuente won two court cases slightly easing ballot access requirements in Virginia and Washington.

[23][24] De La Fuente's history of ballot access suits and his victories received a write-up from the Federal Judicial Center.

[25] On June 20, 2016, De La Fuente paid the $10,440 (~$12,998 in 2023) qualifying fee to run for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 election for US senator from Florida, over a seat then occupied by Republican Marco Rubio.

He joined the race claiming that private polling data showed him defeating the two Republican candidates who were then entered, Paul Massey and Michel Faulkner.

De La Fuente's campaign said that he had attempted to purchase an apartment, that the building's management refused to interview him because he was Hispanic, and that they might make a federal court case out of this matter.

[29] On March 28, De La Fuente debated mayoral contenders Kevin Coenen, Mike Tolkin, independent Bo Dietl, Democratic challenger Sal Albanese and Republican Faulkner in an event hosted by the Reform Party of New York State (which is not affiliated with the Reform Party of the United States of America).

[30] After Faulkner and Massey suspended their campaigns, only De La Fuente and Nicole Malliotakis remained in the Republican primary.

However, two Malliotakis supporters, with the blessing of her campaign, filed objections to De La Fuente's ballot petition signatures.

[31][32] De La Fuente ran for U.S. Senate in nine states in 2018, seeking to show problems with the current election process, which he called "Loony Toons!

"[33] On February 26, 2018, he filed to run for in California under the Republican Party to unseat incumbent Dianne Feinstein,[34] but failed in the June 5 primary.

[9] Jim Camden, a columnist for The Columbian, wrote that "for this year's primaries [...] it's clear the biggest loser was Rocky De La Fuente.

"[42] In January 2017, De La Fuente stated in a court filing that he intended to again seek the Democratic Party nomination in the 2020 presidential election.

[45][46] For the Republican primaries, he qualified as a candidate in California (where he also qualified for the ballot for the American Independent Party),[47] Connecticut,[48] Delaware,[49] Florida,[50] Idaho,[51] Illinois (where he was on the ballot but did not have delegate candidates to support him),[52] Louisiana,[53] Massachusetts,[54] Mississippi,[55] New Hampshire,[56] Pennsylvania,[57] Texas,[58] and Vermont,[59] and filed in New York,[60] Oklahoma,[61] Rhode Island,[62] and West Virginia.

[70] Connecticut's Secretary of the State Denise Merrill then also requested that De La Fuente allow himself to be removed from the ballot, as Trump had already secured enough delegates to win and the voting during the COVID-19 pandemic would put the public's health at risk.

[71] De La Fuente remained on the ballot, despite that request and a campaign from the state's Republican Party to have people call the candidate to talk him into dropping out.

[80] On October 28, 2020, De La Fuente asked the Supreme Court of the United States to review the decision[81] stating the Minnesota Republican Party identified him as eligible to appear in the primary election,[82] that candidates chosen by their party must be treated equally on the ballot, and that Minnesota voters have a right to be presented with a ballot that accurately identifies those candidates.

[86] In 2019 De La Fuente filed one of five lawsuits that arose against a California law requiring candidates release their tax returns to appear on the state's primary ballots.

[87] De La Fuente also requested a U.S. Supreme Court review of a Ninth Circuit court decision which approved California's requirements for ballot access by independent candidates,[88] and mounted a federal challenge to Georgia's granting political parties ultimate control over who appears on their ballots; parties in Florida and Minnesota have similar control.

[122] In 2020, his son Roque De La Fuente III[123] entered the Democratic presidential primaries in Arizona, California,[124][125] Colorado,[126] Idaho,[127] Missouri,[128] New Hampshire,[129] Texas,[58] and Utah.