Former Presidential Candidate Herman Cain Gone at age 74: Coronavirus/COVID-19 takes down "Self-Made Leader"

from NewsMax.com/CLICK HERE…

Herman Cain — the maverick American business czar and Republican presidential candidate who campaigned for a sweeping tax reform plan called 9-9-9 — died Thursday morning after a monthlong battle with the coronavirus. He was 74.

Cain, who recently joined Newsmax TV and was set to launch a weekly show, died in an Atlanta-area hospital where he had been critically ill for several weeks.

He was admitted on July 1, two days after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Ten days before, Cain had attended a rally for President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

But it is not known for sure where Cain, chair of Black Voices for Trump, was infected. He had been on a whirlwind travel schedule in June, stopping in multiple cities.

“He was one of the most original thinkers in American politics. He creative strong convictions, an open mind and a deep sense of patriotism,’’ veteran political consultant Dick Morris told Newsmax.

“He was a great friend, a great guy. Suddenly, the plague strikes home.’’

Cain was a self-made man with an extraordinary backstory — one that made him a towering example of hard work paying off.

He was born Dec. 13, 1945, in Memphis, Tennessee and was grew up poor in Atlanta, Georgia, where his father worked three jobs — as janitor, barber, and chauffeur — while his mother toiled as a domestic.

A stellar student who worked hard, Cain graduated from Morehouse College with a mathematics degree in 1967. A year later, he married Gloria Etchison, who he had met when he was a sophomore at Morehouse and she a freshman at Morris Brown College.

Cain went on to earn a master’s in computer science from Purdue University in 1971, and helped develop fire control ballistics for ships and fighter planes for the U.S. Navy.

Next, he joined the Coca-Cola Co. as a systems analyst, and after considerable success, moved to the Pillsbury Co.

After serving as regional vice president of Pillsbury’s Burger King, Cain then took on the biggest challenge of his career as president and CEO of Godfather’s Pizza, a national chain teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.

In 14 months, he returned Godfather’s to profitability and led his management team to a buyout of the company.

Later, Cain said he could explain his success at Godfather’s Pizza in one word, “marketing.”

Cain, who long held an interest in public policy, became chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1995, serving in the position for 20 months.

In 2019, Trump nominated Cain to Federal Reserve Board. But the nomination drew serious flak from Congress and Cain’s detractors.

“Because I ran as a Republican for president and the United States Senate, and because I am an outspoken voice of conservatism, an outspoken voice of the Constitution and the laws, I’m being attacked,” Cain said, shortly before asking the president to withdraw his nomination.

Cain’s first dabbling into politics came in 1996, when he was tapped as senior adviser to the Dole/Kemp campaign for the presidency.

He ran for a Senate seat in Georgia in 2004, but was defeated in the Republican primary by Johnny Isakson.

In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer, but with aggressive treatment was able to beat the disease.