Cain, 74, former presidential candidate, dies due to coronavirus

ATLANTA » Herman Cain, former Republican presidential candidate and former CEO of a major pizza chain who went on to become an ardent supporter of President Donald Trump, has died of complications from the coronavirus. He was 74.

A post on Cain’s Twitter account Thursday announced the death. Cain had been ill with the virus for several weeks. It was not clear when or where he was infected, but he was hospitalized less than two weeks after attending Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., in June. Cain had co-chaired Black Voices for Trump.

“We knew when he was first hospitalized with COVID-19 that this was going to be a rough fight,” read an article posted on the Twitter account.

White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany tweeted on Thursday that Cain “embodied the American Dream and represented the very best of the American spirit. We will never forget his legacy of grace, patriotism, and faith.”

Cain, who had hoped to become the first Black politician to win the GOP nomination, was initially considered a long-shot candidate. His bid was propelled in September 2011 when he won a straw poll vote in Florida, instantly becoming an alternate candidate for Republican voters concerned that former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was not conservative enough.

Cain honed his speaking skills in the corporate world, then hosted a radio talk show in Atlanta that introduced his political views and up-by-the-bootstraps life story to many Tea Party supporters and other conservatives.

He ventured into national politics in 1994 when he publicly challenged President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, on his proposal to force employers to buy health insurance for their employees. “For many, many businesses like mine, the cost of your plan is simply a cost that will cause us to eliminate jobs,” Cain told Clinton. “What will I tell those people whose jobs I will have to eliminate?”

Afterward, the restaurant industry used Cain as a spokesman as it campaigned against Clinton’s plan, which failed.