Jesse Scheckner
Jayden D’Onofrio has chaired the Florida College Democrats, served as Deputy Director for Voters of Tomorrow and today leads a political committee that raised more than $1 million last cycle for campus-based election efforts.
Not bad for someone five months shy of 21. Now, he’s vying for a new title: state Representative.
D’Onofrio just entered the race to replace Democratic state Rep. Mike Gottlieb in House District 102. D’Onofrio said he hopes to bring a new generation of leadership to Tallahassee and a fresh approach focused on lowering costs, protecting education and building a better future for Floridians.
“The cost of living is out of control, and too many families are being left behind,” he said in a statement.
“We deserve leaders who will focus on real solutions and restore people’s faith in what’s possible. That’s what this campaign is all about.”
D’Onofrio grew up in Davie and spent his upbringing, education and early public service in the community he now hopes to represent. He said he found his purpose in public service after losing his mother to a fentanyl overdose in 2020.
That led to his working as a Senate page in high school and campaigning with Davie Democratic state Sen. Lauren Book, as well as interning with U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Miami Gardens state Sen. Shevrin Jones.
D’Onofrio served as Chair of the Florida Democratic Party Youth Council, the Florida College Democrats and Florida Future Leaders, a PAC he founded with other Generation Z Democratic leaders to support progressive candidates and recruit young voters to turn back the Sunshine State’s rising red tide.
To date, Florida Future Leaders has raised $1.3 million and spent all but $118,000 of it on various political activities statewide.
D’Onofrio ran for Vice Chair of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP) in January, saying that “many problems” with the party could be improved by “building toward the future,” including updating its data infrastructure and improving its approach to fundraising.
Despite support from then-Senate Democratic Leader Jason Pizzo, Boca Raton state Sen. Tina Polsky, political strategist Steve Schale and former state Reps. Tom Keen and Katherine Waldron, D’Onofrio lost the bid by 10 percentage points to Duval Dems Chair Daniel Henry.
Undeterred, D’Onofrio poured himself back into his work with Florida Future Leaders, which stacked close to $216,500 since January and threw its support behind several local candidates in South Florida.
While D’Onofrio has been critical of the FDP, the preponderance of his ire is reserved for the GOP, which he says has mismanaged Florida into crisis-level unaffordability.
“During 30 straight years of Republican rule, Florida’s affordability has become a crisis and access to basic healthcare keeps slipping away. Republicans have allowed property insurance companies to run rampant raising costs on Floridians, and it’s time to end that malicious practice,” he said. “As the Governor tries to turn Florida into a national symbol of MAGA extremism, Floridians are struggling.”
D’Onofrio joins fellow Democrat Mike Friend in running for the HD 102 seat, which Gottlieb must vacate next year due to term limits. Through June 30, Friend — whom Gottlieb and roughly a dozen other current and former elected officials have endorsed — raised close to $100,000, half of which was a self-loan.
Two Republicans, Cooper City Commissioner Jason Smith and lawyer Mery Lopez-Palma, are running to flip the district. Smith has raised $24,500 so far, while Lopez-Palma has amassed $16,500, most of it self-given.
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.
