Herman Cain (13 December 1945 – 30 July 2020) was an American politician, business executive, and Tea Party activist. He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1 January 1995 to 19 August 1996, succeeding Burton Dole and preceding Drue Jennings.
Biography[]
Herman Cain was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1945, and he was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. He graduated from Morehouse College with a degree in mathematics and went on to work full-time for the Department of the Navy before joining the Pillsbury Company in 1977 and becoming vice-president. During the 1980s, Cain's success as a business executive at Burger King led to Pillsbury appointing him CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.
Cain was drawn to the Republican Party due to its support for business and entrepreneurship, as he believed in hard work and a free market. He served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from 1989 to 1991 and then Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from 1 January 1995 to 19 August 1996, when he became a senior economic advisor to Bob Dole's presidential campaign. From 1996 to 1999, he served as President and CEO of the National Restaurant Association. In May 2011, he announced his intent to run for President of the United States, proposing the replacement of the payroll, capital gains, and estate taxes with 9% personal income, sales, and corporate taxes. In November, his campaign was accused of sexual misconduct, and he was forced to suspend his campaign on 3 December 2011. After Mitt Romney lost the election to the Democrat Barack Obama, Cain claimed that the Republican Party no longer represented the interests of American conservatives and that it would be unable to rebrand itself, calling for the formation of a third party. On 20 June 2020, Cain contracted COVID-19 after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa without wearing a mask, but he continued to oppose mandatory social distancing and mask-wearing policies until his death in an Atlanta hospital in July.