Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The "Boob God" of Miami, the husband of a <keyword id="11899434" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="real-housewives" source="Orion">Real Housewives</keyword> star, sued former patients who wrote negative <keyword id="12127770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="online-reviews" source="Orion">online reviews</keyword>.</li><li>Dr. <keyword id="12127769" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="leonard-hochstein" source="Orion">Leonard Hochstein</keyword> also attempted to pay off a woman in a bid to rid the internet of her negative review, an Insider investigation finds. Hochstein denied this.</li><li>He used non-disparagement agreements, or "gag clauses," which called for $25,000 in damages per disparaging review.</li></ul><p>Prominent plastic surgeon Dr. Leonard Hochstein calls himself the "Boob God" of Miami but some of his former patients would opt for less flattering monikers.</p><p>"What I would like to call him would probably get me sued again," said Kristen LaPointe - a 38- year-old stay-at-home mom who went to Hochstein for breast augmentation surgery in 2018.</p><p>LaPointe was sued by the plastic surgeon, the husband of the <keyword id="12127768" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="real-housewives-of-miami" source="Orion">Real Housewives of Miami</keyword>'s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/real-housewives-star-lisa-hochstein-selling-miami-home-2012-11">Lisa Hochstein</a>, after she wrote a string of negative online reviews about her "appalling" boob job.</p><p>She's one of several women who spoke to Insider who believe that Hochstein will go to great lengths to rid the internet of uncomplimentary comments about him.</p><p>In addition to filing lawsuits, the women told Insider that he had used non-disparagement agreements, or "gag" clauses, which called for $25,000 in damages per disparaging review and, in at least one instance, attempted to pay off a former patient.</p><h2>'Very nasty, very contentious' legal battles</h2><p>LaPointe, who now lives in Tennessee, went to Hochstein for surgery after she saw "really good" reviews about him on Yelp. She was excited to have her breasts augmented by the so-called Boob God, but she was disappointed with the results, to her dismay.</p><p>She tried to resolve the situation with Hochstein by asking for a refund. She says the plastic surgeon refused, so instead, she wrote reviews on several websites to express her frustration.</p><p>She said, along with her husband, that they wrote a total of 14 negative reviews across Google, Yelp, and several other medical websites. Hochstein claims they wrote over 50, he told Insider.</p><div type="image" title="Kristen LaPointe, a former patient of Leonard Hochstein" height="1080" width="1440" msid="86340958" hostid="261"></div><p>In June 2018, Hochstein filed a lawsuit against the couple. He accused them of <keyword id="11949128" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="defamation" source="Orion">defamation</keyword> and alleged that LaPointe had violated the terms of an agreement she had signed in which she agreed not to publish any "negative reviews or disparaging comments" about him, the complaint against the couple says.</p><p>What followed was two years of a "very nasty, very contentious" legal battle, LaPointe said. According to legal documents seen by Insider, Hochstein filed successfully for an injunction that stopped her from posting certain comments.</p><p>A Miami-Dade County judge ruled that LaPointe and her family had to remove certain reviews - around 13 - some of which it found were based on hearsay, but allowed her to keep up comments that reflected her "personal experiences."</p><p>The case was eventually closed, with no money being exchanged, but LaPointe told Insider that she still "gets sick just thinking about it" until this day. "It was just so emotional," she said, through tears, during a Skype conversation. LaPointe said that she now struggles to sleep as her insomnia has been exacerbated by the stress.</p><p>Hochstein, however, said that he "doesn't lose much sleep over it" but added that the legal battle "wasn't fun."</p><p>During a phone call with Insider, the plastic surgeon defended his decision to take legal action. He said that LaPointe is "venomous" and is an example of someone with an "ax to grind" and added that he had no choice but to sue. "My other choice was I could have paid her off," Hochstein said. "But there's no guarantee if I would have done that, she would have stopped anyway."</p><h2>'The business may be attempting to abuse the legal system in order to stifle free speech'</h2><p>LaPointe wasn't the only woman taken to court by Hochstein after writing negative reviews.</p><p>Nicole George, a flight attendant from Colorado, was unhappy with a "mommy makeover" (a tummy tuck, breast augmentation, and liposuction) she received. She was also sued after writing negative reviews about the famed plastic surgeon on RealSelf and Yelp.</p><p>Hochstein sued her, again saying that his patient had gone against the terms of the non-disparagement agreement, but the case was later settled and voluntarily dismissed without prejudice.</p><div type="image" title="Dr Leonard Hochstein and Lisa Hochstein at an event" height="1940" width="2587" msid="86340961" hostid="261"></div><p>According to the <a href="https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/consumer-review-fairness-act-what-businesses-need-know">Consumer Review Fairness Act</a>, a federal law passed in 2016 to protect Americans' ability to share their honest opinions as consumers, businesses are prohibited from using these sorts of agreements to punish customers who share honest feedback about the services they received.</p><p>In a statement to Insider, a spokesperson for Yelp condemned Hochstein's use of a "gag clause" and noted that his behavior once led to the company issuing an alert on his business's page for a period of three months.</p><p>The statement said: "As part of our Consumer Alerts program, we may place a Questionable Legal Threats Alert on a business page when we receive evidence that a business may be abusing the legal system to intimidate or silence a reviewer, for example through a dubious legal threat or a contractual gag clause.</p><p>"In 2019, Yelp learned that Dr. Hochstein's practice had sued multiple clients. After investigating this claim and receiving evidence of a gag clause in the practice's patient contracts, Yelp placed a Questionable Legal Threats Alert on the business's Yelp page. This alert was placed to warn others that the business may be attempting to abuse the legal system in order to stifle free speech."</p><div type="image" title="A copy of the old non-disparagement agreement signed by Kristen LaPointe" height="326" width="435" msid="86340963" hostid="261"></div><p>Hochstein told Insider that it was a "mistake" and an "error" to use the non-disparagement agreements, which he conceded were "illegal" but added that he didn't choose the wording.</p><p>He initially claimed that the agreements were only used for around five months in 2016. When presented with documents indicating he was still using non-disparagement agreements in January 2018 - over a year after the Consumer Review Fairness Act banned them - he claimed they were used for six months from May 2017.</p><p>The non-disparagement agreements have been replaced with exact copies of the Consumer Protection Act, Hochstein said.</p><h2>'People are probably scared of him'</h2><p>Another former patient, who asked to be referred to only as 'Stephanie,' refused to sign Hochstein's original non-disclosure agreement. "When I went in to get surgery with him, my intuition, or something inside of me, told me to remove that document," she said.</p><p>Stephanie said she felt emboldened to write her first reviews ever about her "botched" surgery on Yelp and RealSelf. She said she was almost immediately issued a threat of costly litigation. "His attorney called me the next day to remove the reviews," she said. "If I didn't, he said he was going to sue me and take me to court."</p><p>She ignored the threat and refused to take her reviews down. "He didn't pursue a lawsuit because I removed the document, I didn't sign it, I took the paper from the package," Stephanie told Insider. "But I've had a lot of girls message me since that are scared to come forward because of the document."</p><p>Stephanie said that she believes Hochstein's powerful position intimidates women into remaining silent. "He obviously has a lot of connections, and people are probably scared of him," she said.</p><h2>Hochstein apparently tried to pay a former patient to take a review down</h2><p>According to a former patient, Hochstein offered her money to get her to take down her reviews. The former patient said that Hochstein told her on a call that he was not going to give a refund on the surgery but said: "what I can do, is give you $1,000."</p><p>Later in the call, Hochstein offered money in exchange for his former patient signing a release, taking down the review, and promising not to contact his office again. He explained that the former patient would take down the review and agree not to write any other ones.</p><p>The patient refused the offer.</p><p>In an email to Insider, Hochstein referred to allegations that he had "bribed" customers as "100 percent a lie" and instead claimed that several patients have tried to extort him of money. In a phone call, he said that he has "never" offered a patient money to take down a review.</p><h2>Hochstein went after the review websites</h2><p>But it's not only former patients Hochstein has taken through the courts. He filed lawsuits against Google, HealthGrades, RealSelf, and MMP Solutions (MakeMeHeal) in a bid to discover the identities of anonymous reviewers.</p><p>"Those lawsuits were not against those people, but those sites allow people to make posts, and these posts are from people who've never had my services," Hochstein said.</p><p>"You can't just ask them for the IP addresses or for the information," he continued. "You actually have to take them to court, and the judge has to say this is what you have to do because none of these companies do it voluntarily. They have to be compelled, and that's what it's about."</p><p>Google, Realself, and MMP Solutions did not respond to Insider's requests for comment. <keyword id="11894571" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="health" source="Orion">Health</keyword>grades, which has since been acquired by RV Health, declined to comment.</p><p>Hochstein told Insider that he has taken such extreme measures to get reviews removed because he takes them "personally."</p><p>Some of the negative reviewers might harbor animus towards him, he said, because of his "lifestyle" and what he and his reality star wife post on Instagram.</p><p>Others, he went on, might be unhappy because he didn't perform a miracle. "They expect to become a swimsuit model as a result of the operation... but I did something that I felt nobody else could have achieved," Hochstein said.</p><p>But for some former patients, like Stephanie, the doctor's efforts are emblematic of the plastic surgeon's "god complex."</p><p>"He thinks that if anyone says anything about him, then we're the crazy ones," she said. </p>

The Real Housewives of Miami's 'Boob God', a top plastic surgeon, sued his patients to purge the internet of their negative online reviews

<ul class="summary-list"><li>As conservatives flee Blue State hostility and lockdowns, South <keyword id="6357385" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="florida">Florida</keyword> has become a GOP power base.</li><li>The GOP social calendar orbits <keyword id="6354862" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="trump">Trump</keyword>'s <keyword id="3285762" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Mar-a-Lago">Mar-a-Lago</keyword>, while revelers party mask-free at swank house parties and penthouses. </li><li>Greater <keyword id="15641" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Miami">Miami</keyword> has lured California tech and right-wing <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword>. Florida's <keyword id="6358883" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="politics">politics</keyword> is meanwhile shifting Red.</li></ul><p>Brittney Reed needed to get in front of Donald Trump and it had to happen fast.</p><p>It was the eve of two special elections in Louisiana, and Reed--the head of the Louisiana GOP--knew an endorsement from Trump could make the difference. So, she had secured a last-minute ticket for a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago and flew to Palm Beach to make her case in person.</p><p>It was mid-March, and Mar-a-Lago had <a href="https://apnews.com/article/mar-a-lago-partially-closed-covid-19-outbreak-32a7a9694c1f738eef6af6d3fc6e5aa1">partially closed</a> a section of the club after several workers tested positive for COVID-19. But Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who became a national figure for loosening coronavirus restrictions, had booked the club for the evening and his event went on as planned. </p><p>When DeSantis and Trump finished their remarks, Reed made a beeline for the former president to discuss the two Republicans she wanted in Congress: Julia Letlow, the widow of congressman-elect Luke Letlow, who had died from COVID complications, and Claston Bernard, a former LSU track star.</p><p>Trump turned to DeSantis and others around him.</p><p>"Ron, what do you think of this race here?" Trump said, according to sources with knowledge of the event. (Representatives for Trump, DeSantis, and Bernard did not respond to Insider's questions about the encounter.) "Is it possible, what do you think?"</p><p>The crowd agreed that Letlow was a good bet, while DeSantis said Bernard's seat "wasn't winnable" because the district was heavily Democratic. Trump had <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/542674-trump-endorses-widow-of-rep-elect-luke-letlow-in-louisiana-house-race">praised </a>Letlow before, but it wasn't widely known his removal from social media platforms had silenced the former president's preferred megaphone. "How am I going to do this endorsement if I do it?" Trump asked.</p><div type="image" title="Mar a Lago better" height="2000" width="3000" msid="82006946" hostid="261"></div><p>"Put a press release out. We'll get it everywhere," Reed said.</p><p>The following day, Trump released a statement <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/544146-trump-boosts-julia-letlow-ahead-of-louisiana-special-election">promoting</a> Letlow's candidacy. She <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/20/julia-letlow-special-election-louisiana-477350">won</a> easily.</p><h2><strong>Mar-a-La-Go-Go</strong></h2><p>South Florida has long been a haven for those fleeing frigid winters and high taxes. Once the pandemic began, a jet set of monied Manhattanites, tech entrepreneurs, and untethered influencers restless from Blue State lockdowns flocked to Miami en masse -- helping turn Greater Miami into a <keyword id="58815" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="conservative">conservative</keyword> power base.</p><p>Once Mar-a-Lago went from being Trump's "Winter White House" to full-time residence, the <keyword id="155317" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Republican">Republican</keyword> Party's social calendar has increasingly orbited his beachfront Xanadu. </p><p>"Republicans used to go to the Upper East Side to raise money but most of those people aren't even in New York anymore. They're in their second home in South Florida," said Adam Weiss, a Miami-based public relations executive. "Now that New York completely shut down, that drove a whole new group of people to come down here." </p><p>So far this year, Trump's members-only resort has hosted high-dollar soirees for DeSantis, Utah Senator Mike Lee, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and Alabama Senate candidate Lynda Blanchard. </p><p>"I have to say, I'm getting calls from senators, they all want our endorsement and I'm being very selective," Trump said at the Noem gathering, which donors <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/02/23/kristi-noem-trump-fundraiser-471159">paid</a> $4,000 to attend. </p><p>Party honchos even relocated their confabs to South Florida to ensure a Trump appearance.</p><p>The American Conservative Union <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cpac-2021-speakers-trump-pence-orlando-republican-conservative-2021-2">switched</a> its annual CPAC event from suburban Maryland to Orlando in February to avoid limits on large indoor gatherings. It was there that Trump made his first public remarks since leaving office. </p><div type="image" title="Trump won" height="3581" width="5249" msid="82006949" hostid="261"></div><p>The Republican National Committee picked Palm Beach for its spring donor retreat in April and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-rnc-mar-a-lago/2021/03/08/0b693fce-8051-11eb-bb5a-ad9a91faa4ef_story.html">set</a> a portion of the weekend at Mar-a-Lago to appease Trump after officials <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-cease-and-desist-name-likeness-republican-fundraising-rnc-2021-3">angered</a> the former president by using his image in its fundraisers.</p><p>When Air Force One touched down in West Palm Beach on Jan. 20, hundreds of MAGA-hatted faithful lined Southern Boulevard gripping blue "Trump 2020" flags and hand painted "Trump Won" signs as the former president's motorcade whizzed by.</p><p>It was a far friendlier atmosphere than he had lately experienced in Manhattan, where raucous protesters would pack Fifth Avenue, at the foot of Trump Tower, whenever Trump returned from Washington. </p><p>"It's a wealthy place and there's not many places where there are so many heavy hitters who are Republican," Weiss said.</p><div type="image" title="Arrest Trump 2 " height="2334" width="3500" msid="82006954" hostid="261"></div><h2><strong>"Isn't it so nice that Miami is open?"</strong></h2><p>Power lunches in Palm Beach still <a href="https://pagesix.com/2021/02/19/upper-east-side-power-dining-scene-relocates-to-palm-beach/">reign</a> among Trump's inner circle. Rudy Giuliani is known to hold court at The Breakers and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been seen dining at La Bilboquet, a Worth Avenue outpost of a high-end Manhattan eatery that opened in February. The afterparty crowd for Mar-a-Lago events often hits Cucina Palm Beach where Kimberly Guilfoyle, who <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9436083/Donald-Melania-Trump-attend-Easter-service-spending-day-Mar-Lago-grandkids.html">purchased</a> a $9.7 million mansion with her boyfriend Don Jr. in nearby Jupiter, has been spotted dancing on the tables. </p><p>The love for Trump spreads 70 miles south of Mar-a-Lago to Miami, a city that never sleeps thanks to many coronavirus restrictions lifting months ago.</p><p>They pack into Carbone, one of the restaurants dotting Collins Avenue in South Beach. Or Socialista, a swanky lounge attached to Cipriani Restaurant, where transplants from San Francisco start-ups rub shoulders with maskless models and the occasional conservative influencer, before moving on to an all-night <a href="https://pagesix.com/2021/01/25/former-real-housewives-star-fined-for-wild-house-parties-in-miami/">party</a> at a South Beach penthouse or at the Star Island mansion of plastic surgeon Leonard Hochstein and "Real Housewives of Miami" star Lisa Hochstein.  </p><p>"Isn't it so nice that Miami is open?" one tech founder, who called himself a COVID refugee, said. "I'm so over COVID."</p><p>But the hottest reservation in Biscayne Bay is Joia Beach, a Mykonos-inspired beach club with views of megayachts and the Miami skyline. </p><p>There's currently a three-month wait on Open Table but VIPs like Akon, Maluma, Adriana Lima, hedge fund manager Dan Loeb, and Tiffany Trump have snagged tables to nibble on Tasmanian trout crudo ($20), Turkish octopus ($30), and winter fennel and crab salad ($28). </p><p>It helps to be on a texting basis with one of the restaurant's partners. Others have tried more unusual measures.</p><p>"People have swam in," Marko Gojanovic, a Joia Beach partner and real estate agent, said. "There are people who have tried to pull jet skis in areas we can't see. People have paddled up to us. Thank God we have security."  </p><div type="image" title="Ron and Kim" height="2738" width="4107" msid="82006957" hostid="261"></div><p>Coronavirus is still raging in Florida a year after the pandemic began. The state has had more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/florida-covid-cases.html">2 million</a> cases and 33,000 deaths, with a quarter of the state's total occurring in Miami-Dade County alone. But South Floridians--old timers and new arrivals alike--have largely shed their coronavirus concerns like a chunky sweater at the beach.</p><p>No one shames people for forgoing masks at hotels and restaurants or packing house parties. Mar-a-Lago remains a mask-free zone.</p><p>Contrast that to what happened in the northeast last winter, when a video of a Queens Republican club's Christmas party, featuring a maskless conga line, gained <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/30/951267532/multiple-coronavirus-cases-after-republican-christmas-party-in-new-york">3.7 million views</a> online and drew torrents of condemnation. Manhattan Young Republicans were so spooked by the media they <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/03/nyregion/young-republicans-club-party.html">held</a> their winter gala at a secret location in New Jersey.</p><p>Washington has become less hospitable to Trump-friendly conservatives too. American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp said he's had several hostile encounters with progressives in public. He and his wife, former White House communications aide Mercedes Schlapp, are eyeing a move south.</p><p>"I was eating a salad last weekend at a restaurant in Old Town Alexandria and was berated by a woman who called me an 'a--hole,'" Schlapp said. "Usually you have to cut someone off in traffic to earn that kind of title but here you just have to be someone recognized for being a Republican."</p><h2><strong>The Great Republican Migration</strong></h2><p>South Florida has been beckoning conservatives for years, but locals say the influx has accelerated since Trump took office in 2017. </p><div type="image" title="Thank U Trump" height="2849" width="4273" msid="82006960" hostid="261"></div><p>Fox News is still headquartered in Manhattan but other right-wing outlets have proliferated along the Gold Coast. <a href="https://www.insider.com/newsmax-anchor-greg-kelly-defends-trump-but-who-is-he-2021-1">Newsmax</a>, the Boca Raton-based cable channel, is <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/elections/fl-ne-newsmax-expansion-news-bureaus-biden-trump-20201210-fzi24y7isvax3ovspxonyazr7m-story.html">adding a news bureau</a> in Miami later this year. Conservative radio host and Palm City resident Dan Bongino is one of several commentators trying out for the slot that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sandra-fluke-says-shes-countering-the-hatred-rush-limbaugh-sowed-2021-2">Rush Limbaugh</a> anchored from Palm Beach until his death earlier this year. Far-right podcaster Bill Mitchell has been broadcasting his <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bill-mitchell-donald-trump-supporter-move-to-miami_n_5d5302a0e4b05fa9df05df82">YourVoice America</a> program from Miami since 2019. And MAGA influencer Maggie Vandenberghe fled California for Palm Beach this winter.</p><p>The party's donor class soon followed. Billionaires fleeing Blue State progressivism decamped to Miami's most exclusive islands. Palantir co-founder and Republican <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/29/peter-thiel-gives-six-figures-to-republican-national-committee.html">megadonor</a> Peter Thiel plunked down <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/miami-real-estate-ford-ceo-compound-photos-2020-10">$18 million</a> in September for a Venetian Islands chateau where MTV's "The Real World: Miami" was filmed. Founders Fund partner Keith Rabois <a href="https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/tech-icon-criticizes-San-Francisco-Keith-Rabois-15746116.php">chided</a> San Francisco for being "massively improperly run and managed" before dropping <a href="https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk02RYavWOystY0_hegTogRU1vMXOzA%3A1615496508614&amp;ei=PIVKYJL5JJXPtQa8irbYBg&amp;q=keith+rabois+miami&amp;oq=keith+rabois+miami&amp;gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBAgjECcyBAgAEEMyAggAMgYIABAWEB5Q4MkTWODJE2C5zRNoAnAAeACAAW-IAdsBkgEDMC4ymAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpesABAQ&amp;sclient=gws-wiz&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiSh6C8kanvAhWVZ80KHTyFDWsQ4dUDCA0&amp;uact=50KHTyFDWsQ4dUDCA0&amp;uact=5">$29 million</a> on an estate near Thiel in December, while Blumberg Capital's David Blumberg blamed "<a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/2020/12/01/prominent-venture-capitalist-joins-bay-area-exodus.html">poor governance</a>" in California before making his cross-country journey. </p><p>"Miami should be the easiest and cheapest city in the country for somebody to start a business," Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said. "I want to make sure everyone around the country knows that Miami is here to help you grow, not keep you from growing."</p><h2>A political shift is underway   </h2><p>Florida's transformation from swingy purple to deeper red would have been unthinkable two decades ago when George W. Bush won the state and the presidency by a minuscule 537 votes. Southeast Florida swelled more than a million people since 2000 but it is far less of a Democratic stronghold than it used to be. </p><div type="image" title="Trump and FL GOP " height="3432" width="5228" msid="82006965" hostid="261"></div><p>President Barack Obama won Palm Beach County by 24 points and Miami-Dade by 16 points in 2008 en route to statewide victories during both presidential campaigns. But Trump won twice by making up ground in Democratic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-florida-president.html">counties</a>. </p><p>Florida Republicans knocked doors for months <a href="https://www.wmfe.org/republicans-in-florida-are-knocking-on-doors-to-shore-up-candidates/164091">boosting turnout</a> while the Biden curtailed canvassing during the health crisis. The Trump campaign also accused Democrats of supporting socialist policies -- a message that resonated among Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants who fled brutal left-wing regimes.</p><p>"Democrats were flat-footed in dealing with accusations of socialism in commercials where people had lived under the boot of socialism," Dan Gelber, Democratic mayor of South Beach, said. "I don't think we responded aggressively enough."</p><p>Latino voters in Miami-Dade also <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-data-latino-support-49a0f0ed-b244-4b27-86b3-ee022e21f8c1.html">feared</a> economic damage from school and business closures more than getting sick, according to voter data Equis <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20537484-equis_post-mortem_part_one__public_deck_">analyzed</a>.</p><div type="image" title="miami volleyball" height="2844" width="3956" msid="82006968" hostid="261"></div><p>"As bad as the coronavirus pandemic was in terms of caseloads and deaths, apparently a lot more Floridians were concerned with the economy and that certainly helped Trump," Aubrey Jewett, University of Central Florida political science professor, said.</p><p>Trump's presence in Florida has benefited the state's ambitious officeholders. Ron DeSantis has become a 2024 frontrunner in <a href="https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/28/cpac-straw-poll-increases-buzz-ron-desantis-2024-presidential-run/6862699002/">several</a> <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2021/03/05/desantis-and-pence-tied-in-new-poll-of-trump-voters-1366958">polls</a> after being one of the first governors to reopen his state. Marco Rubio has a clear shot at re-election and is again seen as a likely presidential candidate.</p><p>While the coronavirus has sped up the conservative influx, it's not clear what will happen once the pandemic recedes. New arrivals could stay in South Florida now that remote work has become more prevalent and there's less of a need for face-to-face meetings.</p><p>There's always been a stigma about Miami but people told me in their New York circles that stigma has been lifted," said Reid Heidenry, a Sotheby's agent who sold over $100 million in real estate in the past year, said. "In the business world, it's now socially acceptable to live in a place like Miami Beach."</p><p>Whether a COVID refugee or long-time fixture of Miami Beach, there's one thing that's indisputable across party lines.</p><p>"Freedom tastes pretty good," Zangrillo said at a house party.</p>

The Great GOP Migration: How South Florida became a shadow capital for Trump conservatives

You Searched For "leonard hochstein" and got 2 results

The Real Housewives of Miami's 'Boob God', a top plastic surgeon, sued his patients to purge the internet of their negative online reviews

Joshua Zitser

The Great GOP Migration: How South Florida became a shadow capital for Trump conservatives

Heather Hauswirth,Aaron Short

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides