  In order to reproduce the measured mass of the Higgs boson mh = 125GeV in the
minimal supersymmetric standard model, one usually has to rely on heavy stops,
increasing the fine tuning of the electroweak scale. By introducing a new gauge
sector, the Higgs mass gets a tree-level contribution via a non-decoupling
D-term, and mh = 125 GeV can be obtained with lighter stops. In this paper, we
study the values of the stops masses needed to achieve the correct Higgs mass
in a setup where the gauge group is extended by a single U(1)x interaction. We
derive the experimental limits on the mass of the Z' gauge boson in this setup,
then discuss how the stops masses vary as a function of the free parameters
introduced by the new sector. We find that the correct Higgs mass can be
reproduced with stops in a region between 700 - 800 GeV and a Z' resonance
close to the 2.5 TeV bound from the run-I of the LHC, or in a higher region 800
- 900 GeV if the Z' resonance is heavier (3.1 TeV). This region of parameter
space will be quickly accessible at run-II of the LHC, and we discuss the
impact of the projected run-II bounds on the U(1)x parameter space. We also
discuss the phenomenology of the Higgs-like particles introduced to break U(1)x
and conclude their effects are too small to be detected at current colliders.
