Former Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, who visited The Villages in February 2016, has died after being hospitalized with COVID-19.
The 74-year-old former business executive who President Trump once considered for the Federal Reserve is among the highest-profile public figures in the United States to lose the battle against the Coronavirus. The survivor of stage 4 colon cancer had attended Trump’s re-election rally in Oklahoma in June before being diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus.
Cain, who once served as the board chairman of a branch of Kansas City’s Federal Reserve Bank, was hospitalized in Atlanta on July 1. He hadn’t required a ventilator and was awake and alert when he checked into the hospital. His Twitter account, which was being run by staff members, said Wednesday that he was being treated with oxygen to strengthen his lungs and “doctors say his other organs and systems are strong.”
Cain attracted a crowd of about 100 people in February 2016 when he spoke at La Hacienda Recreation Center in The Villages just hours before the polls closed in New Hampshire. He at one point had been at the top of polls among Republicans in the 2012 White House contest and he offered his take on the current presidential field. Watch video of Cain’s visit here:
At the time, the businessman-turned-radio-host proudly pointed out that the three candidates he early on predicted would do well – Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz – had enjoyed strong showings. He wouldn’t be pinned down on which candidate he would favor but he said it would be the responsibility of the party members to support the GOP nominee.
Cain also recalled his race for the U.S. Senate in Georgia in 2004 and said it was the first time his mother had ever cast a Republican ballot.
“My mother had voted Democrat all her life,” he said.
She was 78 years old at the time, Cain said, and for her to take a Republican ballot was akin to taking poison.
Cain also warned audience members to watch out for their children and grandchildren who might fall under the spell of socialist Bernie Sanders, who was running for the Democratic nomination.
He mocked Sanders’ “Feel the Bern” campaign slogan.
“They’ll feel the burn all right,” Cain warned. “They’ll feel the burn of higher taxes.”