Getty Herman Cain at a different event.
Herman Cain, the former Republican presidential candidate and business executive, has died at age 74 after being hospitalized for COVID-19. He was also a survivor of stage four cancer.
His death was formally announced on his official Facebook page. “We have heartbreaking news for you this morning, but please join us in celebrating our boss’s life,” the post, on July 30, 2020 read. “We’re heartbroken, and the world is poorer: Herman Cain has gone to be with the Lord,” a post on Cain’s website was titled.
What was Cain’s cause of death?
Dan Calabrese, the editor of Cain’s website, wrote a lengthy statement on Cain’s website, confirming that Cain was hospitalized for COVID-19 and had struggled to breathe as a result of the infection, with his condition worsening before he died.
According to CNBC, Cain was also a “74-year-old survivor of stage 4 colon cancer,” and attended President Donald Trump’s Tulsa, Oklahoma rally before being diagnosed with coronavirus. A July 2 statement released by Cain’s social media said: “There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus.” He was hospitalized for COVID-19 on July 1 and tested positive for the virus two days before that, according to CNBC. The rally was held on June 20. According to CNBC, masks were not required but temperatures were checked; CNN reported that eight members of the president’s rally advance team tested positive for COVID-19 and were quarantined. According to CNN, it’s “unknown where Cain contracted the virus,” but a video and photo show him at the Trump rally without a mask.
CNN reported that Cain died of coronavirus, basing that on the website statement, which you can read below.
Heavy has reached out to the medical examiner’s office for Cain’s formal cause of death.
Here’s what you need to know:
Cain Was Hospitalized for COVID-19 But Doctors Never Could Quite ‘Advance Him to the Recovery Phase’
Here’s just a few of the #BlackVoicesForTrump at tonight’s rally! Having a fantastic time!
#TulsaRally2020 #Trumptulsa #TulsaTrumprally #MAGA #Trump2020 #Trump2020Landslide
According to Calabrese’s statement, Cain had COVID-19, and it landed him in the hospital. “Let me deal with some of the particulars of the last few weeks. 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,” he wrote.
They kept his worsening condition quiet.
“We didn’t release detailed updates on his condition to the public or to the media because neither his family nor we thought there was any reason for that,” Calabrese wrote. “There were hopeful indicators, including a mere five days ago when doctors told us they thought he would eventually recover, although it wouldn’t be quick. We were relieved to be told that, and passed on the news via Herman’s social media. And yet we also felt real concern about the fact that he never quite seemed to get to the point where the doctors could advance him to the recovery phase.”
“You’re never ready for the kind of news we are grappling with this morning. But we have no choice but to seek and find God’s strength and comfort to deal with it,” Calabrese’s statement started on the Cain website. “Herman Cain – our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us – has passed away. He’s entering the presence of the Savior he’s served as an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church in Atlanta for, and preparing for his reward.”
Calabrese quoted a Bible verse: “God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life,” adding, “By that measure, we expect the boss is in for some kind of welcome, because all of us who knew him are well aware of how much good he did.”
Cain Was High Risk Because He Had Stage Four Colon Cancer That Spread to His Liver
GettyHerman Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate, died at the age of 74 after being diagnosed with and hospitalized for COVID-19.
According to Calabrese’s statement, Cain was in a high-risk group for COVID-19 because he had a history of cancer.
“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. 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,” Calabrese wrote.
In 2011, The Washington Post reported that Cain “survived a bout of advanced colon cancer.” In 2006, he was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, meaning the cancer had spread. “In Cain’s case, doctors found a tumor in his liver, a common location for colon cancer to spread,” the Post reported at that time.
Cain beat bad odds; The Post reported that only about “6 to 12 percent of patients with stage IV colon cancer survive five years.”
“Herman had just started hosting a new show on Newsmax TV. He was so excited about it, and so pumped up about playing a role in the 2020 election campaign. At an age when a lot of people are looking to slow down, he was taking on new projects, booking speaking opportunities. Ever the dealmaker, he would fill me in with details of his negotiations with people on any number of things. I would always tell him I should have him negotiate my deals with my business’s other clients, because he did them better than anyone.”
He added: “The last time I talked to him was when he was getting ready to start the Newsmax show. He was really pumped about it, and I was happy for him because he’d walked away from a nice contributor gig at Fox a couple years early to head a Super PAC. When that ran its course, Herman really wanted to get back into TV, and this afforded him a beautiful opportunity. Alas, he only ever got to host one episode.”
“I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling the past week,” Calabrese wrote previously on his website earlier in July. “I don’t think there’s any way to trace this to the one specific contact that caused him to be infected. We’ll never know.”
The Washington Post reported that the majority of rally attendees didn’t wear masks. “I’ve been watching the fake news for weeks now, and everything is negative,” the president said at the rally, according to The Post. “Don’t go, don’t come, don’t do anything. Today it was like, I’ve never seen anything like it. … You are warriors.”
The Post reported that Tulsa, Oklahoma, reported a surge of COVID-19 cases after the rally, with a top health official suggesting the rally and other events, such as protests, “more than likely” helped cause it. “The past two days we’ve had almost 500 cases, and we know we had several large events a little over two weeks ago, which is about right,” Tulsa Health Department Executive Director Bruce Dart said during a news conference, The Post Reported. “So I guess we just connect the dots.”
The Calabrese Statement Praises Cain’s Leadership for Major Corporations
Getty/Daniel BoczarskiHerman Cain, pictured in August 2016.
Calabrese wrote that he believes Cain’s business expertise was overlooked. “But there was so much more to him than the public saw, and certainly more than the media presented to you. Most people heard of Herman for the first time when he ran for president in 2011,” he wrote. “What they didn’t know was his business background. They didn’t know how he had started his career as a civilian employee of the Navy. It was funny to us because sometimes political pundits portrayed him as kind of a goof – having no idea that during his time working for the Navy, he was literally a rocket scientist.”
Calabrese added: “Many people don’t know about his years climbing the corporate ladder at Pillsbury, at Burger King and finally as CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.”
“There aren’t many people like Herman Cain, and it behooves us to truly cherish the ones we’re given. His wife Gloria – his children Melanie and Vincent – and his grandchildren . . . they need our love, our support and our prayers. Nothing I talked about above meant as much to him as these wonderful people did, and because he loved them so much, we will continue to feel his impact on the world through them,” he wrote. “I’m sorry I had to bring you bad news this morning. But the good news is that we had a man so good, so solid, so full of love and faith . . . that his death hits us this hard. Thank God for a man like that.”
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