Thomas A. Fuentes[1] (October 16, 1948 – May 18, 2012) was an American political leader who was chairman of the Republican Party of Orange County in California from 1985 to 2004.
In the mid-1990s, Republicans held all of the county's legislative and congressional seats, showing it to be one of the most Republican large populous counties in the country.
[2] Fuentes moved to Orange County in 1962 where he worked in Richard Nixon's gubernatorial campaign.
[1] He traced his lineage back six generations to Mexican immigrants.
Fuentes died on May 18, 2012, in Lake Forest, California from complications from liver cancer.