Former 2012 Presidential Candidate Herman Cain dies at 74 after Coronavirus Battle

In this June 20, 2014, photo, Herman Cain, CEO, The New Voice, speaks during Faith and Freedom Coalition's Road to Majority event in Washington. AP

Story by Syracuse
Written by Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.com

2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is dead at age 74 after a battle with the Coronavirus.

“Herman Cain – our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us – has passed away,” wrote Dan Calabrese on Cain’s website Thursday. “Herman was 74. Although he was basically pretty healthy in recent years, he was still in a high-risk group because of his history with cancer.”

Cain, a former pizza company executive and co-chair of Black Voices for Trump, was hospitalized in early July two weeks after attending President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He tested positive for Covid-19 and was taken to an Atlanta-area hospital with “serious” symptoms.

Calabrese said it was unclear where Cain contracted the deadly virus, as he “did a lot of traveling” over the previous week. Cain did not meet with President Trump at the Tulsa event, which health officials said was a “likely” source of a coronavirus surge in Oklahoma.

Cain, a former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, was prominent figure in the 2012 presidential race with the 9-9-9 plan to simplify the tax code. On the campaign trail, he spoke about being diagnosed in 2006 with stage 4 liver cancer and his doctors giving him slim hope for long-term survival.

He remained involved in politics for years, most recently serving as a commentator for conservative news outlets.