Campaign season in Miami-Dade has officially shifted into another gear now that absentee or vote-by-mail ballots are about to drop.
Not one, but two of Democratic strategist Christian Ulvert‘s high-profile South Florida clients launched very similar five-figure advertising buys this week, signaling that campaign season has gone from warm-up stretches to full-contact political sport. The game is on.
Both Miami-Dade Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, seeking what would be her second and final full term representing District 8, and State Rep. Ashley Gantt, who’s hoping to move across the Capitol rotunda from the House to the Senate by succeeding Sen. Shevrin Jones, announced Monday that they had released campaign videos that could soon be on a TV or digital screen near you.
Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe it’s just what happens when one consultant has a dance card that’s as full as Ulvert’s appears to be this election cycle.
The rollout was almost synchronized.
Cohen Higgins’ 30-second television and digital spot introduces her as a mother, attorney and South Dade neighbor before checking off the 
accomplishments she wants voters to remember: transparency with tax dollars, standing up to developers trying to build on protected lands, and holding accountable those who promised thousands of jobs that never materialized.
“Being a mother has taught me that you don’t get to cut corners with people’s futures. And that’s exactly how I’ve led,” she says in the spot.
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The campaign wraps it all in one memorable line: “No one fights like a mother.”
It’s an ad designed to remind voters why they elected her in the first place while reinforcing the image she’s cultivated since being appointed to replace now-Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in 2020 — pragmatic, accessible and willing to throw elbows when necessary.
And make no mistake: despite District 8’s Democratic lean, Cohen Higgins isn’t running unopposed.
Former Palmetto Bay Vice Mayor John DuBois has been campaigning for months, pitching himself as the fiscal conservative in the race and arguing the county has lost its way on spending and priorities. Martha “Vega” Hero, CEO of National Community Services, is also running, 
emphasizing her nonprofit leadership and community work while trying to introduce herself to voters.
Neither has the financial firepower nor labor coalition Cohen Higgins has assembled — at least not yet.
The DCH endorsement list reads like a Democratic greatest-hits album: SEIU Florida, the South Florida AFL-CIO, UNITE HERE Local 355, 32BJ SEIU, the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, Metro-Dade Firefighters, the South Florida Council of Firefighters and Ruth’s List, among others.
That’s the kind of support that doesn’t just produce nice press releases. It produces volunteers, mail pieces, phone banks and boots on the ground.
Meanwhile, just a few miles north, Gantt rolled out an almost parallel campaign strategy.
Her commercial highlights her roots as a public school teacher and attorney while criticizing Gov. Ron DeSantis over education funding and healthcare costs before promising to be “a fierce voice for forgotten families.”
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“This community raised me, and I’m not done fighting for it,” Gantt says in her own 30-second spot. “I will never forget where my journey started.”
Her endorsement roster is just as impressive in Democratic circles, with Levine Cava joining the entire Florida Senate Democratic Caucus and Ruth’s List in backing her bid for Senate District 34. She’s also seen as the front-runner but, unlike Cohen Higgins, she’s running in an open seat vacated when Jones decided not to seek re-election and run for Congress instead.
Gantt faces a Democratic primary against Shanna Ighodaro before worrying about the General Election field, which also includes Republican Elizabeth Jeanty and no-party candidate Francisco Amador. But this being a heavy blue district, whoever wins in August is likely the new 
state senator.
Ighodaro is a former Miami Gardens councilwoman who spent years building connections in the district’s political, civic and church communities. While Gantt has the establishment lined up behind her, Ighodaro is trying to position herself as the grassroots alternative.
The simultaneous video launches with remarkably similar messaging — personal biography, family values, fighting for taxpayers/families in polished 30-second spots — weren’t accidental. That’s classic coordinated campaign timing from the same consultant. And while Christian Ulvert’s clients are rolling out polished television ads and collecting endorsements, the other guys have been relatively quiet.
In politics, silence isn’t always fatal — but when your opponent is already on television introducing herself to voters, it means you’re starting to run uphill.
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The ads also signal something campaign professionals and political observers understand all too well: once the television reservations are made and the digital ads start rolling, the election has entered a new phase.
Expect more commercials. More mail. More text messages. More endorsements. More carefully staged photo ops.
And, of course, more candidates telling us they’re fighters. Because in Miami politics, everyone fights for taxpayers, everyone fights for families and everyone fights for the future.
The real fight, however, is for about 30 seconds of your attention before you hit the skip button.
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Here come the ads: Daniella Cohen Higgins and Ashley Gantt hit the airwaves added by Ladra on
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