By Francisco Alvarado, FloridaBulldog.org
Democratic strategist Christian Ulvert has turned a sprawling network of political action committees into one of the most powerful fundraising engines in Miami-Dade politics, collecting roughly $1.6 million since Jan. 1 so far for this year’s primary and general elections.
He’s tapping into an array of donors with business before the county and the city of Miami. The money, steered through 12 PACs he chairs, shows how deeply Ulvert’s operation is embedded in the machinery that links campaigns, consultants, developers and the public approvals they need for success.
Along the way, Ulvert has developed a reputation as a backroom influence peddler and gatekeeper to city and county politicos, including two of South Florida’s most powerful female elected officials: Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and Miami Mayor Eileen Higgins.
“I get why candidates drift toward him,” said Thomas Kennedy, a Miami civic activist and a disillusioned ex-Democrat. “But I don’t think the guy is very ethical. That is just my opinion.”
Ulvert declined to answer detailed questions from Florida Bulldog about why he controls 12 PACs, which candidates or issues each one supports, what he tells donors about how their money will be used, why funds are frequently shifted between committees, and which contributors are also his public-relations clients.
Instead, he offered a statement that cast his operation as routine political work and insisted committee funds are handled properly.
“It’s that time of the year when focus turns on the great work I do in the community,” Ulvert said. “All political committees are established as allowed by law and support candidates, causes, [and] the local and state parties as we all work to elect strong leaders locally, regionally and across the state.”
Since January, Christian Ulvert’s firms Edge Communications and Win Canvass have billed the dozen committees for roughly $260,000 in electioneering services. But his companies do not make any commissions for fundraising activities, he said.
“We work to support and advance causes and issues…that align with [the mission statements of] the political committees, and the raised funds ensure that the mission is met,” Ulvert said. “It’s not about influence. It’s about values and purpose and the important political work ahead.”
A familiar name in South Florida politics, Christian Ulvert has spent years operating as a consultant, campaign strategist and behind-the-scenes fixer for Democratic candidates and interests that need help winning elections or navigating government. His firms and political committees have made him a central figure in Miami-Dade’s campaign ecosystem, especially among Democrats who want access to donor networks and polished political operations to stay competitive.
A majority of Ulvert’s haul, $971,370, went to four PACs tied to three Democratic candidates, but only one of them is facing reelection. During the first five months of this year, Ulvert’s Our Democracy committee, which has primarily supported Mayor Levine Cava’s election in 2020 and her re-election in 2024, raised $549,620, the most out of the dozen PACs he chairs.
Fight For Our Future and We Are, Miami-Dade, two PACs backing the reelection bid by Miami-Dade County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, pulled in $303,000. And Ethical Leadership for Miami, a committee that backed Eileen Higgins’ mayoral bid, racked up $118,750.
Ulvert uses his connections to provide a sophisticated campaign infrastructure and fundraising capability that are not usually available to Democratic contenders, Kennedy said.
ULVERT’S POWERFUL REACH
Christian Ulvert has primarily cultivated influence with elected officials, developers, land-use players and other businesses that do work with county government. His sphere of influence now extends into the city of Miami as well, where two committees he controls backed the winning campaigns of Higgins and Miami City Commissioner Rolando Escalona. Those committees also drew money from developers and land-use firms with interests before city hall, a sign that Ulvert’s network is no longer just a county government-focused operation.
The donors to Ulvert’s PACs since January are a who’s who of people with business before Miami-Dade and the city of Miami. Their fortunes often depend on approvals, contracts, leases or land-use decisions from the same candidates that Ulvert’s PACs help bankroll.
Florida Bulldog has confirmed two of the contributors to his PACs are his public-relations clients: Coconut Grove-based development firms Terra and the Swerdlow Group. Terra, led by David Martin, donated a combined $55,700 to three Ulvert PACs, including the committee that backed Levine Cava and one of the Cohen Higgins committees. The company is negotiating a new lease agreement with Levine Cava and her staff for the Miami Seaquarium site after acquiring the lease from The Dolphin Company in a bankruptcy-court deal approved in December. The land underneath the Virginia Key attraction is owned by Miami-Dade.
Terra wants to redevelop the property into a 2 million-square-foot commercial project with a new accredited aquarium, restaurants, retail, a research center and a wet-slip marina and dry-dock facility. The proposed marina would have 325 boat slips, including 90 for yachts over 80 feet long, according to a county application to amend the county’s comprehensive development master plan. State regulators have raised concerns about wetlands impacts and whether Miami-Dade adequately considered alternative designs that would put less strain on seagrass and other bay-bottom habitat, according to WLRN, which first reported about the plan.
Swerdlow Group, founded by Michael Swerdlow, donated a combined $50,000 to three Ulvert PACs. Swerdlow has deep county ties of his own. In April of last year, county commissioners approved a public-private partnership with Swerdlow and business partner Alben Duffie to develop Little River District, a $3 billion mixed-use project that would include 5,000 apartments, more than 3,700 of them said to be set aside for affordable and workforce housing.
Recently, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development rejected the county’s plan to award a county-owned public housing project in Liberty City to Swerdlow and his partners without competitive bidding.
Ulvert insists that he does not lobby any government officials on behalf of his clients, and that he strictly provides public relations advice to them.
Other developers that have spread money to Ulvert’s PACs include Atlantic Pacific and Bluenest Development. Atlantic Pacific gave $10,000 to one of Ulvert’s PACs after the county approved a 99-year ground lease worth about $17 million for the redevelopment of Perrine Gardens and Perrine Village. The project includes at least 101 multifamily housing units, with 50 low income units transferred from the existing public housing site.
Bluenest Development donated a combined $45,000 to three Ulvert PACs, including the two committees supporting Cohen Higgins. The homebuilder, headquartered in Miami’s Blue Lagoon neighborhood, has emerged as one of the most active donors in county politics this year.
The company gave more than $190,000 to county commissioners in the first three months of 2026, according to a Miami Herald analysis, making it the top donor in county government politics so far this year. Bluenest is currently seeking a zoning change on an agricultural site west of Florida City to build townhouses.
OTHER NOTABLE DONORS TO CHRISTIAN ULVERT’S PACS
Other donors include:
- Stephen Ross, owner of the Miami Dolphins and Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, gave $10,500 to two Ulvert PACs. Miami-Dade subsidizes stadium events through a tax-funded incentive program and has also approved up to $46 million in cash and in-kind services for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
- Lemartec, a subsidiary of MasTec, donated a combined $30,000 to two PACs, including $15,000 to one supporting Cohen Higgins. In June, the county commission’s aviation committee, chaired by Cohen Higgins, recommended approval of a $50.9 million construction contract to a Lemartec-led joint venture to build a new wing connecting two concourses at Miami International Airport.
- Magnum Construction’s Laura Munilla donated $10,000 even as the company continues to receive work from Miami-Dade after its role in the deadly collapse of a pedestrian bridge under construction at Florida International University in 2018. In June, the county commission approved a change order for Magnum extending the completion date of a new warehouse and storage facility for the water and sewer department under a $28 million contract.
- Aabad Melwani, president of Rickenbacker Marina on Miami’s Virginia Key, donated $10,000 to Ethical Leadership Miami that backed Eileen Higgins, and another $10,000 to Fresh Start Miami, a committee that Ulvert formed in December. Rickenbacker Marina recently sued the city to stop a November referendum that would allow a rival operator to take over the city-owned site and develop a new boating facility and restaurants.
Ulvert occupies a gray era that is legal, but troubling, said Caroline Klancke, executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute. Since he is operating as a private citizen, ethics rules that govern elected officials, bureaucrats and lobbyists do not apply to him in the same way.
“These private citizens do serve a public function,” Klancke told Florida Bulldog. “In their absence there would be more situations of an incumbent candidate engaging in something that could be construed as seeking quid pro quo activities with people who do business with their agencies.”
While private intermediaries can serve a legitimate function by keeping elected officials from directly courting vendors, the larger problem is the lack of transparency, Klancke said.
“Indeed, the opacity in which these PACs operate seems to be mitigating the ability of the public to understand who are the supporters of these candidates, which is problematic,” she said. “We need to take further steps to facilitate transparency, which right now is not present.”
Thomas Kennedy, a former Democratic National Committee member who left the party in 2024, was more blunt about Ulvert’s influence.
“The guy is a cancer on Miami-Dade politics,” Kennedy said. “People are afraid to speak their minds about him. Everyone knows he is self-dealing and using his political clients to get corporate clients to enrich himself and his firms.”
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