The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Herman Cain, who attended Trump’s Tulsa rally, hospitalized with covid-19

July 2, 2020 at 9:38 p.m. EDT
Former Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain delivers the Tea Party Express response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union Address at the National Press Club in Washington in 2012. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

Herman Cain, the former pizza chain executive who ran in the Republican presidential primary in 2012, has been hospitalized with covid-19 less than two weeks after attending President Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa.

Cain, 74, learned that he tested positive for the virus Monday, and by Wednesday required hospitalization for his symptoms but is not on a ventilator, according to a statement on his Twitter account.

“There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus, but we do know he is a fighter who has beaten Stage 4 cancer,” the statement says.

While it is unclear where Cain contracted the disease or how long he had it, Cain was among the several thousand attendees at Trump’s Tulsa rally on June 20, most of whom did not wear masks. Cain, who co-chairs Black Voices for Trump, was pictured maskless and not socially distancing at the event.

Cain, whom Trump considered for a seat on the Federal Reserve Board, wrote an op-ed about his experience in Tulsa. He described the rally as “electric” and derided media reports that characterized the rally as a bust. The Trump campaign was forced last-minute to shut down an outside overflow viewing party for lack of attendance. The campaign had boasted of 1 million ticket requests, but only a little more than 6,000 people partly filled the arena that can hold 19,000.

“The atmosphere was electric, and the president’s words were inspiring,” Cain wrote in the Western Journal. “He presented a vision for uniting the country, overcoming the remaining effects of the pandemic and reinvigorating an economy he had going strong before the coronavirus showed up.”

The coronavirus that ravaged the nation in the spring and forced almost all business and activity to a halt has flared again recently in states across the country.

Volunteers for the Trump campaign were seen removing stickers intended to promote social distancing in the arena of President Trump’s June 20 Tulsa rally. (Video: Obtained by The Washington Post)

After the rally, dozens of Secret Service agents and officers who were there were ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks. Hours before Trump’s rally, it was discovered that six advance staffers, including two Secret Service employees, had tested positive for covid-19. Two more advance staffers tested positive after returning to Washington.