Unforced errors often are the difference between winning and losing in politics.

That’s because a candidate’s self-induced mistakes can provide an opponent with sufficient leverage to put the candidate on the defensive.

Trust me, no one wants to play defense in a political campaign. It’s a recipe for defeat.

But that’s the hole Fresno City Council District 1 candidate Rob Fuentes has dug for himself as he heads to a November runoff against Naindeep Singh.

Fuentes First Mistake Came in 2025

What are Fuentes’ unforced errors?

First was his decision to continue working as a federal prosecutor after Donald Trump returned to the White House in 2025. Trump made it clear that he had no qualms about trampling on the Constitution as he launched his anti-immigrant blitz. Fuentes is an Ivy League-educated civil rights attorney and a Democrat.

Putting “federal prosecutor” on a campaign brochure impresses voters when talking about safe neighborhoods. But Fuentes had to know that he might not survive a Trump purge and it’s beyond dispute that the values he has espoused in previous campaigns and as a State Center Community College District trustee put him in direct conflict with the Trump administration.

Before filing to run for city council, he should have secured a position in the state Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office. California is leading the resistance to Trump’s policies and Bonta is Gov. Gavin Newsom’s chief architect of that effort. Or Fuentes could have sought employment as a county prosecutor — preserving the “safe neighborhoods” plank of his campaign.

On a Fuentes’ campaign handout in the primary, one headline proclaimed, “Trump Extremism Threatens Fresno.”

Yet he continued working for Trump’s Department of Justice. Did Fuentes really think he could fly under the president’s — and Singh’s — radar all the way to November?

Abolish ICE Comment Was Monumentally Dumb

Fuentes’ second unforced error: His telling Fresnoland that he would support “abolishing” ICE in an apparent attempt to pass some far-left purity test. Talk about a facepalm moment.

Abolish ICE? Reform it, yes. Abolish it, no. Did Fuentes think for even a nanosecond before making that statement? Apparently not.

I can’t imagine his two highest profile endorsers, Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer and current District 1 councilmember Annalisa Perea, calling for the abolishment of ICE. Nor two other Fuentes endorsers, the Fresno City Firefighters union and the Fresno Teachers Association.

Fuentes told The Fresno Bee on Monday that he resigned as a federal prosecutor after DOJ placed him on administrative leave following his abolish ICE comments.

“I was pushed out by the Trump administration after I criticized ICE publicly,” he said.

Dirty Politics?

Fuentes also said in The Bee interview that he believed a Singh supporter pitched the false allegation that he worked to deport immigrants to media outlets.

The now-former federal prosecutor also said that he has always defended the rights of immigrants — even while working under Trump — and portrayed himself as the victim of “dirty politics.”

Really now, is there any other kind of politics? It’s called “hardball” for a reason. And rare is the campaign consultant who won’t gleefully roll out a guilt-by-association attack on the other side’s candidate.

You advertise your progressive credentials but work for who? Donald J. Trump? Now isn’t that interesting?

Fuentes has no one to blame but himself after handing the Singh camp a steam shovel and 10 gallons of diesel, and starting the engine.

The question is, can he dig himself out before November?