Herman Cain
Herman Cain was an American businessman and Tea Party movement activist in the Republican Party. Cain graduated from Morehouse College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He then earned a master's degree in computer science at Purdue University while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy. In 1977, he joined the Pillsbury Company where he later became vice president. During the 1980s, Cain's success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza, in which capacity he worked from 1986 to 1996.
Cain was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from 1989 to 1991. He was deputy chairman, from 1992 to 1994, and then chairman until 1996, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In 1995, he was appointed to the Kemp Commission and, in 1996, he served as a senior economic adviser to Bob Dole's presidential campaign. From 1996 to 1999, Cain was president and CEO of the National Restaurant Association.
In May 2011, Cain announced his 2012 presidential candidacy. By the fall, his proposed 9–9–9 tax plan and debating performances had made him a serious contender for the Republican nomination. In November, however, Cain was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women. Cain denied the allegations but announced the suspension of his campaign on December 3. He remained active in the Republican Party and was a co-chairman of Black Voices for Trump in the 2020 election cycle.
Cain died from COVID-19 on July 30, 2020, at the age of 74.
Early life
Herman Cain was born on December 13, 1945, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Lenora Davis Cain, a cleaning woman and domestic worker, and Luther Cain, who was raised on a farm and worked as a barber and janitor, as well as a chauffeur for Robert W. Woodruff, the president of The Coca-Cola Company. Cain said that as he was growing up, his family was "poor but happy." Cain related that his mother taught him about her belief that "success was not a function of what you start out with materially, but what you start out with spiritually." His father worked three jobs to own his own home—which he achieved during Cain's childhood—and to allow his two sons to attend college.Cain grew up on the west side of Atlanta, attending S. H. Archer High School and the Rev. Cameron M. Alexander's Antioch Baptist Church North in the neighborhood now known as The Bluff. Eventually the family moved to a modest brick home on Albert Street in the Collier Heights neighborhood. He graduated from high school in 1963.
Education and career
In 1967, Cain graduated from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics. In 1971, he received a Master of Science in computer science from Purdue University, while working full-time as a ballistics analyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy as a civilian.After completing his master's degree at Purdue, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for Coca-Cola in Atlanta as a computer systems analyst. In 1977, he moved to Minneapolis to join Pillsbury, becoming director of business analysis in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.
Burger King and Godfather's Pizza
At age 36, Cain was assigned to analyze and manage 400 Burger King stores in the Philadelphia area. At the time, Burger King was a Pillsbury subsidiary. Under Cain, his region posted strong improvement in three years. According to a 1987 account in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Pillsbury's then-president Win Wallin said, "He was an excellent bet. Herman always seemed to have his act together." At Burger King, Cain "established the BEAMER program, which taught our employees, mostly teenagers, how to make our patrons smile" by smiling themselves. It was a success: "Within three months of the program's initiation, the sales trend was moving steadily higher."Cain's success at Burger King prompted Pillsbury to appoint him president and CEO of another subsidiary, Godfather's Pizza. On his arrival on April 1, 1986, Cain told employees, "I'm Herman Cain and this ain't no April Fool's joke. We are not dead. Our objective is to prove to Pillsbury and everyone else that we will survive." Godfather's Pizza was performing poorly, having slipped in ranks of pizza chains from third in 1985 to fifth in 1988. Under Cain's leadership, Godfather's closed approximately 200 restaurants and eliminated several thousand jobs, and by doing so returned to profitability. In a leveraged buyout in 1988, Cain, executive vice president and COO Ronald B. Gartlan, and a group of investors bought Godfather's from Pillsbury.
Federal Reserve Bank and National Restaurant Association
Cain served as chairman of the board of the Omaha Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City from January 1, 1989, to December 31, 1991. He became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992. He served as deputy chairman from January 1, 1992, to December 31, 1994, and then as its chairman until August 19, 1996, when he resigned to become active in national politics.Cain left Godfather's Pizza in 1996 and moved to the District of Columbia. From 1996 to 1999 he served as CEO of the National Restaurant Association, a trade group and lobbying organization for the restaurant industry, on whose board of directors he had previously served. Cain's lobbying work for the association led to a number of connections to Republican lawmakers and politicians. Under Cain's leadership, the Association lobbied against increases to the minimum wage, mandatory health care benefits, regulations against smoking, and lowering the blood alcohol limit that determines whether one is driving under the influence.
Cain was on the board of directors of Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO.
Media work
Cain wrote a syndicated op-ed column, which was distributed by the North Star Writers Group.Cain appeared in the 2009 documentary An Inconvenient Tax. From 2008 to February 2011, Cain hosted The Herman Cain Show on Atlanta talk radio station WSB. On January 19, 2012, Cain began working for WSB again by providing daily commentaries, while occasionally filling in for Erick Erickson and Neal Boortz.
Cain took over Boortz's radio talk show on January 21, 2013, upon Boortz's retirement. The show was dropped from the Westwood One Radio Network in December 2016 in favor of The Chris Plante Show, but continued to air in limited syndication through WSB's owner, Cox Radio.
On February 15, 2013, Fox News Channel announced Cain would join the network as a contributor. In March 2019, Cain was a panelist on a Watter's World episode.
Recognition
Cain received the 1996 Horatio Alger Award and was bestowed with honorary degrees from Creighton University, Johnson & Wales University, Morehouse College, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the New York City College of Technology, Purdue University, Suffolk University, and Tougaloo College.Then former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, Jack Kemp, referred to Cain as "the Colin Powell of American capitalism". Kemp stated that Cain's "conquests won't be counted in terms of countries liberated or lives saved, but in those things that make life worth living—expanding opportunity, creating jobs and broadening horizons, not just for those he knows, but through his example, for those he'll never meet."
Possible nomination to the Federal Reserve Board
On April 4, 2019, President Donald Trump said that he intended to nominate Cain to the second of the two vacant seats on the Federal Reserve Board. Assessing the possible nomination, news publications reviewed Cain's sexual misconduct allegations that preceded his withdrawal from the 2012 presidential election. Cain acknowledged that the nomination process would be "more cumbersome" for him due to his "unusual career". He initially stated that he was not considering withdrawing his name from consideration for the seat. After it appeared likely that he would not receive enough votes to support his confirmation, Cain withdrew on April 22, 2019.Black Voices for Trump
In the 2020 election cycle, Cain was a co-chairman of Black Voices for Trump.Political activities
Role in the defeat of 1993 Clinton health care plan
In 1994, as president-elect of the National Restaurant Association, Cain challenged President Bill Clinton on the costs of the employer mandate contained within the Health Security Act and criticized the effect on small businesses. Bob Cohn of Newsweek described Cain as one of the primary opponents of the plan:Because Kemp was impressed with Cain's performance, he chartered a plane to Nebraska to meet Cain after the debate. As a result, Cain was appointed to the Kemp Commission in 1995.
Joshua Green of The Atlantic called Cain's exchange with President Clinton his "auspicious debut on the national political stage."