Herman Cain, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza who jumped into politics and ran for president three times, has died after battling COVID-19 for nearly a month. He was 74.
Cain’s death was announced Thursday on his website, hermancain.com, by Dan Calabrese, who edits the site. “Herman Cain – our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us – has passed away,” Calabrese said in a blog post. “We all prayed so hard every day. We knew the time would come when the Lord would call him home, but we really liked having him here with us, and we held out hope he’d have a full recovery.”
“We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight. He had trouble breathing and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. We all prayed that the initial meds they gave him would get his breathing back to normal, but it became clear pretty quickly that he was in for a battle,” the statement said.
The Republican had previously survived stage 4 colon cancer. Just last month, Cain attended Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, less than two weeks before receiving his diagnosis that he had contracted the virus.
On Monday, an update to his Twitter account said Cain “is still in the hospital being treated with oxygen for his lungs. In the meantime, the doctors say his other organs and systems are strong.”
“Re-strengthening the lungs is a long and slow process, and the doctors want to be thorough about it,” another tweet said. “He really is getting better, which means it is working.”
Kayleigh McEnany, President Trump’s press secretary, responded to the news of Cain’s death on Twitter. “Herman Cain embodied the American Dream and represented the very best of the American spirit. Our hearts grieve for his loved ones, and they will remain in our prayers at this time. We will never forget his legacy of grace, patriotism, and faith,” she wrote.
Cain made his name in the restaurant business, running the Godfather’s Pizza franchise from 1986 to 1996. He touted his business experience as a conservative presidential candidate who was briefly the Republican front runner in a packed 2012 primary field. But reports that he had sexually harassed several women around the time he led the National Restaurant Association from 1996 to 1999, and that he had an extramarital affair, led to him dropping out of the race. Cain repeatedly denied the allegations, and President Trump called them an “unfair witch hunt.”
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