By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org
Just about every South Florida MAGA Republican, including President Donald Trump, has endorsed former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez to be the city’s next mayor. Recently, two of Miami’s Cuban-American congressional members, Maria Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart, joined the Gonzalez bandwagon ahead of Tuesday’s run-off. But their fellow Cuban-American colleague and staunch Trump regime defender, U.S. Rep. Carlos Gimenez, has avoided making an endorsement.
Miami Democrats who spoke to Florida Bulldog suspect Gimenez and his camp have cut a deal to secretly back Gonzalez’s opponent Eileen Higgins, the former Miami-Dade county commissioner who headed into the runoff with a nearly 16-point lead after claiming first place in the Nov. 4 city election. At the center of the alleged arrangement is Higgins’s campaign manager Christian Ulvert, the political consultant who has built an electioneering empire largely from his work in managing the ascent of another Democratic-elected official, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.
Ulvert is chairman of Ethical Leadership for Miami, a political action committee backing Higgins that has raised $657,950 primarily from individuals and corporations that have business with Miami-Dade, campaign finance reports show. Ulvert’s two firms, Edge Communications and Win Canvass, have billed Ethical Leadership roughly $376,000 for consulting, canvassing and outreach work.
If voters crown Higgins as Miami’s first female mayor on Tuesday, Ulvert will have mounted an impressive comeback after four candidates he managed in last year’s presidential election lost races for new Miami-Dade constitutional offices, including sheriff and elections supervisor. But in his quest to win, Ulvert is cozying up to Gimenez and other Miami Republicans in a nonpartisan runoff that has turned into a hyper-partisan contest, critics say.
The Florida Democratic Party has been sending voters mailers attacking Gonzalez’s record as city manager and his tenure as Miami-Dade County aviation director when Gimenez was county mayor. Gonzalez, his political action committee Mission Miami and his fellow MAGA Republicans have tagged Higgins as the second coming of Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic Socialist who won the New York City mayoral race.
For Vanessa Brito, another Democratic political consultant, proof that Gimenez is backing Higgins is subtle, noting he praised the ex-county commissioner in a recent Miami Herald article. A Gimenez campaign staffer, Miami-based public relations consultant Helena Poleo, recently posted on her Instagram account a photo of her alongside Higgins under the caption, “With the next mayor of the city of Miami.” Poleo’s husband works as a congressional aide to Gimenez, Brito noted.
“We have Christian running a partisan race in the Miami mayoral runoff when he is making a deal with someone who backs the Trump administration,” Brito told Florida Bulldog. “With Gimenez, any Democrat that challenges him in 2026 won’t get any support from the party, won’t get support from the unions and will not have boots on the ground.”
Gimenez did not respond to Florida Bulldog requests for comment. In an email response to questions, Ulvert scoffed at the accusation. “[I’ve had] zero communication with Mr. Gimenez,” Ulvert said. “It’s laughable to believe that this would have transpired.”
ULVERT SPOILING THE LANDSCAPE?
Ulvert has a history of making it difficult for Democratic candidates who are not his clients to compete in state and federal races, as well as managing campaigns for Democrats who don’t have a realistic shot at winning against Republicans that Ulvert has cultivated relationships with, Brito said.
“Christian spoils the landscape for a lot of Democratic candidates,” she said. “The Democratic Party in Florida has become an extension of Christian. I really thought we were going to break away from him after he lost the four races for the constitutional offices last year.”
If anyone is bad for Democrats, it’s Brito, Ulvert shot back. “She works against Democrats time and again,” he said. “Our team will continue to work to elect strong Democrats up and down the ballot.”
He also noted that one of her clients, Phil Ehr, a Democrat running in the primary for Gimenez’s seat, endorsed Gonzalez for Miami mayor.
Brito is not the only local Democrat finding fault with Ulvert. Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, who recently withdrew from challenging Congresswoman Salazar, said, “There’s a lot of talk about Christian’s influence within the ranks of the Democratic Party.”
“Christian’s done very well for himself with his campaigning business,” Davey said. “He has a great donor base that he works with, and he has had some successes primarily with Mayor Levine Cava. But we should be running people who can win and who are really advancing our goals.”
Ex-Pinecrest Mayor Cindy Lerner has known Ulvert for 20 years, but the pair had a falling out when she ran for the District 7 Miami-Dade County Commission seat in 2020. Lerner narrowly lost to Raquel Regalado, who beat the former village mayor again in a 2024 rematch.
“I have nothing positive to say about him,” Lerner told Florida Bulldog. “He was a consultant of mine, and he left my campaign in 2020 in very unfavorable circumstances.”
However, Lerner said Democratic candidates don’t have a good bench when it comes to selecting campaign managers. “[UIvert] pretty much has taken advantage of the fact that we don’t have much of a choice of qualified Democratic consultants to choose from,” she said. “He is pretty much it.”
Ulvert told Florida Bulldog that he left Lerner’s 2020 campaign two weeks before Election Day because she made disrespectful comments to him and other staffers. “She berated and yelled at levels that were beyond disrespectful,” Ulvert said. “It was inhumane. So I would agree I left in unfortunate circumstances as no individual should be subjected to what I endured — and I have a high threshold!”
PASSIVE POSTURE?
When Higgins resigned her county commission seat, her departure caused an uproar over whether a special election should be held. Brito and other Ulvert critics believe he and Higgins took a passive posture that paved the way for Vicki Lopez, a Republican state legislator, to be appointed to the vacancy instead.
In his defense, Ulvert said, “Special elections are always the best, and it’s how Commissioner Higgins won in 2018.”
Billy Corben, a filmmaker and watchdog activist who flirted with running for the chairmanship of the Miami-Dade Executive Committee last year, pointed out that Higgins made her resignation effective on Nov. 5, which guaranteed that a special election for her county commission seat could not be held at the same time as the city election.
That decision made it easier for the county commissioners who wanted to appoint Lopez to forgo calling a separate special election, Corben said. With Lopez’s appointment, the county commission now has a Republican majority.
“It was Eileen Higgins and the Democratic Party that turned the county commission Republican,” Corben said. “It’s not about who’s red and who’s blue. It’s all about the green.”
It’s not the first time that Ulvert and one of his clients helped Lopez’s political career, Corben said. Last year, Levine Cava’s then-senior digital strategist Jenny Lee Molina initially filed to run against Lopez for the state House District 113 seat, but her bosses and Ulvert allegedly forced her to withdraw her candidacy.
“Ulvert vetoed it after Daniella said she would endorse [Molina],” Corben alleged. “They had made a deal with Vicki Lopez.”
Ulvert denied any involvement, while accusing Corben of sexism. “The sexist tone by which he speaks of strong female leaders elected by voters is disgusting!” Ulvert said. “Plain and simple.”
Now there is a scramble for Lopez’s vacated House seat. Three Republicans, including Miami businessman Frank Lago who immediately scored Lopez’s endorsement, and two Democrats, including Justin Mendoza Routt, president of Miami-Dade Young Democrats, have filed to run in a special election.
“Ulvert put Justin in that race,” Brito said. “Justin is a plant. The goal is to allow Lago, who has Lopez’s endorsement, to win.”
Davey, the former Key Biscayne mayor, said Mendoza Routt won’t be a competitive candidate. “I would never support that person for public office,” Davey said. “I’ve heard that [Ulvert] gets people in who can’t win.”
Ulvert refuted accusations that he finds and puts losing candidates in races. “Mr. Mendoza Routt approached me to work on his campaign, just like other Democratic candidates did too,” Ulvert said. “I believe Democrats are well positioned to win, and we will build a campaign that delivers a great win when the election is called for next year.”
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