Jesse Scheckner
Dentist Mike Friend got off to a strong start running to succeed term-limited Democratic Rep. Mike Gottlieb in House District 102, amassing $74,000 in the first quarter of 2025 to lead a three-candidate field in fundraising.
Between Jan. 1 and March 31, Friend, a Democrat, collected more than 80 outside contributions totaling about $24,000 through his campaign account. He also made a $50,000 self-loan.
Two Republicans, Cooper City Commissioner Jason Smith and lawyer Mery Lopez-Palma, are also running in HD 102. Only Lopez-Palma reported campaign finance activity in Q1, a $1,000 self-loan.
Friend, who is running with an endorsement from Gottlieb and roughly a dozen other current and former elected state and local officials, took mostly personal checks last quarter from Broward residents, many in the dental field.
His average individual donation was just over $300.
He also received $1,000 from the political arm of the Florida Dental Association.
Friend spent close to $8,300, much of it on campaign supplies, signage and apparel.
He paid more than $3,000 to North Miami Beach-based printing business Chai Tees for a variety of goods and services, including artwork, film, shirts, tablecloth and fence banner printing. Another $513 went to Ocean Printing in Fort Lauderdale for postcards.
He spent $670 on food, water and event supplies, $413 on renting event space from the town of Davie for a campaign gathering and $581 for lodging at the Holiday Inn Express in Tallahassee, where he traveled last month for the unveiling of the Holocaust Memorial in the Capitol Complex.
Friend’s campaign made several political donations too, including $1,061 to the Florida Democratic Party, $1,035 to the Broward Democratic Party, $65 to the Jewish Bar Association of Broward and $40 to the Broward County Police Benevolent Association.
HD 102 covers an inland portion of Broward County that includes all or parts of Davie, Plantation and Sunrise. The district leans Democratic. In the 2022 election, voters there sided with Democratic candidate Charlie Crist over incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis by more than 3 percentage points, according to MCI Maps.
The 2026 Primary is Aug. 18, followed by the General Election on Nov. 3.
Candidates faced an April 10 deadline to report all campaign finance activity through March 31.
