José Manuel de la Sota (1949-2018) was an Argentine politician who exerted the greatest influence on Argentine politics in the 1980s.

Born in Córdoba, Argentina, he studied law at the National University of Córdoba, marrying Silvia Zanichelli in 1972, a woman of Italian descent and daughter of former Governor Arturo Zanichelli.

His political activity began to take shape in 1973 with the appointment of the Municipal Councillor of Cordoba, Miguel Flores, a left-wing Peronist, as Legislative Secretary. However, the coup d'état in March 1976 marked the momentary end of his political career.

Only with the return of democracy in 1983, de la Sota resumed politics, running in the primaries of the Justicialist Party, coming second and running for mayor of Cordoba, but being largely defeated by the candidate of the Radical Civic Union, Ramon Mestre.

Although the Peronists in the province showed a persistently low regard for him, de la Sota was nevertheless on the list of the party's four candidates for the Chamber of Deputies. He served in the 1986 Provincial Constitutional Convention as vice-president of the body, thus securing his nomination as a candidate for governor in 1987, despite being later defeated by Eduardo Angeloz.

In 1990 he accepted a position as Ambassador to Brazil, resigning from the re-elected Congress but, in the following year he ran again for governor of Cordoba, being defeated by Angeloz once more. This defeat was significant because it cost de la Sota much of his support within the Justicialist Party and contributed to his failure to regain a seat in Congress.

In 1994, an amendment to the Argentine Constitution that increased the number of senators from two to three allowed de la Sota to return as a high-profile senator in 1995.

In the late 1990s, he was elected governor of Córdoba and remained in office until 2007, during which time he focused on the construction and completion of numerous public works, 340 schools and over 20,000 public housing units, in a province of over 3 million inhabitants.

During the 2015 elections, the governor put forward his candidacy to serve as president of the centrist party United, but came second to Sergio Massa in the August 9 primaries. He supported right-wing candidate Mauricio Macri ahead of the November 22 runoff, helping him win the province of Cordoba by 43 percent.

De la Sota passed away in September 2018 at the age of 68.