Democratic state Rep. Joe Casello’s death last month left a vacant seat in Tallahassee representing parts of Palm Beach County that four candidates are seeking to fill.
HD 90 spans a coastal portion of Palm Beach County, including Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and part of Highland Beach. The district leans Democratic.
Fifty-five percent of voters there supported then-Vice President Kamala Harris over President Donald Trump in November — roughly the same share that backed Casello for re-election.
Qualifying for the Special Election closes at noon Tuesday. If both Republican candidates qualify, the Primary would be held Sept. 30, followed by the General Election on Dec. 9.
The race includes a City Commissioner, a nonprofit founder and community activist, a political operative who has spurred multiple conspiracy theories and a serial litigant who has sued several governments and banks.
Here’s a look at each candidate.
Rob Long — Democrat
Atop the list, alphabetically, is Delray Beach Commissioner Rob Long, who was campaigning to take the House District 90 seat in 2026 with Casello’s blessing before the lawmaker’s passing July 18.
Long, 40, also carries nods from Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, Boca Raton state Sen. Tina Scott Polsky, state Reps. Tae Edmonds, Kelly Skidmore and Debra Tendrich, and former Palm Beach State Attorney Dave Aronberg.
A political consultant, author and loss prevention expert, Long won his City Hall seat in March 2023.
Long has served on numerous government, advisory and advocacy boards, including those of the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency, Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce, Friends of the Arthur R. Mitchell Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and the Palm Beach Soil and Water Conservation District, where he helped build the Ambassadors to the Everglades program for high schoolers.
According to Long’s campaign website, he wants to advance at the state level many of the priorities he pushed for locally, from boosting the economy, supporting small businesses and protecting the environment to promoting sustainable development.
Addressing Florida’s property insurance crisis and supporting abortion rights are also high on his list.
Between February and June 30, the most recent quarterly deadline for campaign finance reporting, Long raised nearly $69,000 between his campaign account and political committee, Long Lasting Progress PC.
Bill Reicherter — Republican
Repeat candidate Bill Reicherter has again thrown his hat into the political ring, rerouting his short-lived candidacy for Governor to instead try to flip HD 90 red in December.
Reicherter, 56, has long owned and operated a signage company. He is also a licensed Realtor, runs a local nonprofit and offers court expertise as a witness for construction-related cases, according to his LinkedIn profile.
He serves on the Palm Beach County Zoning Commission, Palm Beach County Construction Board of Adjustment and Appeals, the Board of Directors for foster parent organization ChildNet and is Board Chair of Inspiring My Generation, a suicide prevention and mental health foundation.
Other involvements include previously serving as Chair of the YMCA of Broward County — where state records show he’s long lived, outside of HD 90. His campaign also lists Parkland, which sits in Broward in House District 95, as its address.
Reicherter challenged Casello last year and lost by 12 percentage points. He ran unsuccessfully against Polsky in 2022.
His campaign website says that, if elected, he’ll support legislation benefiting small businesses and trades, expand mental health resources with an emphasis on first responders and veterans, allocate state appropriations to the district, and provide aid to seniors.
He also vows to support more skilled worker training, clean water initiatives and legislation to protect the environment and boost local resiliency.
Supporters his site cites include Palm Beach County Commissioner Marci Woodward, Delray Beach Mayor Tom Carney, Boynton Beach Commissioner Thomas Turkin, former state Rep. Rick Roth, former Palm Beach City Commissioner Mack McCray, BLU-PAC of Boca Raton and the Association of Builders and Contractors’ Florida East Coast chapter.
His campaign account reported no activity between when he filed to run June 12 and the end of the month.
Maria Zack — Republican
Longtime Georgia lobbyist and conspiracy theorist Maria Zack, who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to support U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, is hoping to make the jump from political operative to elected official this year.
It’s not clear whether she still wields the same fundraising might; she filed to run July 30 and, as such, has not yet reported any campaign finance activities.
Zack, who turns 61 on Aug. 21, owns and operates Quantum Solutions Software Inc., which her LinkedIn page describes as a company that assists “productivity in business, non-profits, and clubs while propelling value driven success and enhancing people’s lives.”
State records show she was registered to vote in Broward County between 2018 and 2021, when she moved from Pompano Beach to Palm Beach.
In 2014, while still living in Georgia, Zack founded the federal-level political action committee Stand for Principle PAC, which through 2017 raised and spent nearly $420,000 backing Cruz’s failed presidential bid. She also ran former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s Atlanta campaign office during the 2012 presidential race.
In 2017, Zack launched Nations in Action, a Lantana-headquartered nonprofit that claims to have uncovered evidence of “shadow government” conspiracies to “depopulate countries a COVID attack” and rig the 2020 election by beaming software hacks from foreign satellites over Italy into voting machines.
Her pinned post on X references that second, QAnon-affiliated claim, known in conspiracy circles as “#ItalyGate.”
Zack, who does not yet appear to have created a campaign website or published platform, appeared in the 2024 film, “Stopping the Steal,” about Trump’s disproven assertion that the 2020 election was fraudulent. IMDB credits her in the film as a “conspiracy theorist.”
Karen Ching Hsien Yeh Ho — no party affiliation
Also running is Karen Ching Hsien Yeh Ho, also known as “Karen Yeh,” who has no party affiliation.
Yeh Ho, 63, has filed multiple, mostly property-related lawsuits in Florida, including a challenge to the loss of her homestead tax exemption and allegations of unconstitutional property tax assessments.
In one case, she sued several Palm Beach County government officials and agencies over how her property tax was valued. In another filed in February, she sued a Florida subsidiary of Northland Investment Corp. over what she contended was a fraudulent property transfer.
She has also sued multiple banks.
Like Zack, Yeh Ho filed to run July 30, so her fundraising and campaign spending numbers aren’t yet available.
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