https://www.essence.com/news/herman-cain-dead-covid-19/

Former Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain has died after weeks of battling the coronavirus, a statement posted on his personal website on Thursday confirmed.

“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,” the post read. “Herman Cain – our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us – has passed away.”

Cain was 74.

Earlier this month, the businessman and presidential candidate had been hospitalized due to the virus. When he was first hospitalized, his team noted that it is not clear how Cain contracted the virus, as he “did a lot of traveling” prior to his hospitalization.

However, before he tested positive, Cain, who is also the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, attended Donald Trump’s indoor rally in Tulsa, Okla.

“We honestly have no idea where he contracted it. I realize people will speculate about the Tulsa rally, but Herman did a lot of traveling the past week. 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,” Cain’s website editor Dan Calabrese noted at the time.

In the post announcing Cain’s death, Calabrese revealed that the former presidential hopeful had experienced trouble breathing and that “it became clear pretty quickly that he was in for a battle”

Cain is survived by his wife, Gloria, his children Melanie and Vincent, and his grandchildren.

The post Herman Cain, Former Republican Presidential Candidate, Dies Of COVID-19 appeared first on Essence.