Who’s giving big to Miami-Dade politicians this year? Townhouse builder tops the list

A townhouse developer needing county approval for projects is a top donor to the Miami-Dade office holders who can grant those approvals, according to a Miami Herald tally of first-quarter campaign finance data.

Bluenest Development, a home builder headquartered outside Miami in the Blue Lagoon area, gave more than $190,000 to county commissioners in the first three months of 2026.

That makes the developer the top donor in county government politics so far this year, per the Herald’s analysis of political committees supporting Miami-Dade’s 13 commissioners and Mayor Daniella Levine Cava.

Bluenest is a leading developer of residential projects in the Miami-Dade suburbs, where county zoning and land-use rules apply.

The company has already completed 1,000 homes, and the Real Deal reports Bluenest has another 3,000 residential units in the pipeline. In January, it filed an application with Miami-Dade to build 145 townhouses on farmland in South Miami-Dade off Southwest 344th Street and 192nd Avenue, near the Robert Is Here fruit stand.

The land sits within Miami-Dade’s Urban Development Boundary, the line separating development from rural areas and the Everglades. Bluenest is billing the project as a way “to address the growing demand for homeownership opportunities, as the region’s remaining developable land becomes increasingly scarce.”

Company representatives were not available for comment on Monday.

Developers routinely land at or near the top of the list of county government’s top political donors, and that trend held true in the first quarter of 2026.

Finishing behind Bluenest on the Herald’s tally was the Related Group, with $115,000 in donations to county incumbents. The Miami developer is a leading builder of public housing and affordable housing in Miami-Dade. The third-highest contributor for the quarter was the Swerdlow Group, a Miami developer that also relies on county land and approvals for its affordable- and workforce-housing projects. Swerdlow gave $105,000 to incumbents, according to the Herald tally.

For the analysis, the Herald looked at all donations to political committees affiliated with a commissioner or Levine Cava. The Herald then tallied the donations and linked them to known companies or individuals using corporate records and other publicly available sources. From that tally, the Herald determined which donors gave the most to incumbents as a whole.

For Bluenest, the company’s $190,000 in donations came in checks to committees supporting seven commissioners: Marleine Bastien, Danielle Cohen Higgins, Roberto Gonzalez, Vicki Lopez, Kionne McGhee, Natalie Milian Orbis and Micky Steinberg. McGhee, whose district includes the site of the development proposal submitted by Bluenest in January, received the most, with Bluenest donating $50,000 to his 1 South Dade committee.

Other highlights from the Herald’s analysis include:

• The commission’s newest member raised the most in the first quarter. Lopez left her Florida House seat in November to accept a commission appointment to the District 5 seat left vacant after Eileen Higgins resigned from the commission to become Miami’s mayor. Lopez, who is up for election in August, raised more than $590,000 for her committee, Common Sense Government, and campaign. Her challenger, former Miami commissioner and state trooper Joe Sanchez, raised about $74,000 for his campaign and Law and Order committee.

• While he only raised about $131,000 in the first quarter, Commission Chair Anthony Rodriguez continues to have no competition when it comes to political war chests. Rodriguez reported more than $3.7 million in cash on hand from his A Bolder Florida political committee. Second place goes to Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, with about $1.7 million in the bank through her campaign and two political committees, Fight for Our Future and We are Miami-Dade. Both Cohen Higgins and Rodriguez are up for reelection in August, though Rodriguez has not yet filed his papers to run for a second term.

• As she fends off a recall effort by one of her 2024 opponents, Levine Cava is raising big money, too. The term-limited mayor took in more than $440,000 for her Our Democracy committee. That put her in second place behind Lopez for money raised. The committee formed by YouTube host Alex Otaola to oust the mayor, Recall Cava, had not reported its first-quarter results as of Monday afternoon.