All it took was one piece of commentary by someone to convince Ben Fernandez that he should join the Republican Party. While a student at Redlands University in California, Fernandez said he was told by an individual that the Republican Party was the party of rich people. Fernandez was the first person of Hispanic origin to run for president in a major party. He did so in 1980, winning three delegates at the Republican National Convention. Fernandez served as an ambassador to Paraguay under President Richard Nixon, and as a member of the Executive Council of the Republican National Committee in 1976.

Born in Kansas to Mexican parents, Ben Fernandez certainly didn’t finish his life in poverty.