Herman Cain | |
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Cain in October 2011 | |
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City | |
In office 1995–1996 |
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Preceded by | Burton A. Dole, Jr |
Succeeded by | A. Drue Jennings |
Deputy Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City | |
In office 1992–1994 |
|
Preceded by | Burton A. Dole, Jr |
Succeeded by | A. Drue Jennings |
Personal details | |
Born | December 13, 1945 Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse(s) | Gloria Cain (m. 1968–present) [1] |
Children | Melanie Cain Vincent Cain |
Residence | Sandy Springs, Georgia, US[2] |
Alma mater | Morehouse College (BS) Purdue University (MS) |
Occupation | Business executive, radio host, columnist |
Religion | Baptist[3] |
Website | hermancain.com |
This article is part of a series about
Herman Cain |
Herman Cain (born December 13, 1945) is an American author, business executive, syndicated columnist, radio host, and former lobbyist from Georgia.[4][5][6] He was a candidate for the 2012 U.S. Republican Party presidential nomination.[4]
Cain grew up in Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.[7] Cain pursued graduate studies at Purdue University, and graduated with a Master of Science in computer science in 1971,[8] while also working full-time for the U.S. Department of the Navy.[9][10][11] In 1977, he joined Pillsbury Company.[12] During the 1980s, his success as a business executive at Burger King prompted Pillsbury Company to appoint him as chairman and CEO of Godfather's Pizza in which capacity he served from 1986 to 1996.[13]
Cain was chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from 1989 to 1991.[14] He was deputy chairman, from 1992 to 1994, and chairman from 1995 to 1996, of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.[14] In 1995, he was a member of the Ecomonic Growth and Tax Reform Commission, also known as the Kemp Commission.[15] In 1996, he was a senior economic advisor to the Bob Dole presidential campaign.[16]
Cain left Godfather's Pizza and the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1996 moving to Washington, D.C. to become the CEO of the National Restaurant Association,[17] in which he served as president and CEO from 1996 to 1999.[18][17] As president-elect of the National Restaurant Association, he publicly opposed the Clinton health care plan of 1993.[19] Cain has served as a member of the board of directors of several companies, including Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO.[20][21][13]
In May of 2011, Cain announced his presidential candidacy. His proposed 9–9–9 tax plan, along with his debate performances, made him a front-runner during the fall of 2011. In November his campaign struggled to deal with allegations of sexual misconduct, which resulted in Cain suspending his campaign on December 3.[22][23][24] The Pew Research Center reported that, of the Republican candidates, "Herman Cain was the most covered candidate in 2011."[25][26]
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Herman Cain was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Lenora Davis Cain, a cleaning woman and domestic worker, and Luther Cain, Jr., who was raised on a farm and worked as a barber and janitor, as well as a chauffeur for Coca-Cola Company president Robert W. Woodruff. Cain has 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 — something he achieved during Cain's childhood — and to see his two sons graduate.[11][27][28]
Cain grew up on the west side of Atlanta, Georgia, attending school and Rev. Cameron M. Alexander's Antioch Baptist Church North in the neighborhood now known as The Bluff. Eventually Cain's father saved enough money and the family moved to a modest brick home on Albert Street in the Collier Heights neighborhood. He attended Archer (public) High School, graduating in 1963.[29]
Cain married Gloria Cain (née Etchison), of Atlanta, soon after her graduation from Morris Brown College in 1968.[30][31] His wife of 43 years is a homemaker, with experience as a teacher and a librarian.[30] The couple have two children and three grandchildren.[30]
In 2006, Cain was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer in his colon and metastases to his liver and given a 30-percent chance of survival. Cain underwent surgery and chemotherapy following the diagnosis, and has since reported that he is in remission.[32]
Disclosures filed during his campaign in 2011 categorized Cain's wealth as of that time as being between $2.9 to $6.6 million, with Cain's income for both 2010 and 2011 combined being between $1.1 to $2.1 million.[33]
Cain grew up in Georgia[7] and graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.
Accepted for graduate studies at Purdue University, Cain received a Master of Science in computer science there in 1971,[8] while he also worked full-time as a ballistics analyst for the U.S. Department of the Navy.[9]
Cain received the 1996 Horatio Alger Award[34] and has received honorary degrees from Creighton University, Johnson & Wales University, Morehouse College, University of Nebraska, New York City Technical College, Purdue University, Suffolk University, and Tougaloo College.[20]
Cain serves as an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta, which he joined at the age of 10.[35] The church is part of the National Baptist Convention, USA[36] and is politically liberal and theologically conservative; the church's senior pastor, Rev. Cameron M. Alexander, does not share Cain's political philosophy.[37][38]
After completing his master's degree from Purdue, Cain left the Department of the Navy and began working for The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta as a computer systems analyst. In 1977, he moved to Minneapolis to join Pillsbury,[39] soon becoming director of business analysis[40] in its restaurant and foods group in 1978.[13][41]
At age 36, Cain was assigned in the 1980s 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.[42][12] 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."[13] 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."[43]
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."[13] Godfather's Pizza was performing poorly, having slipped in ranks of pizza chains from third in 1985 to fifth in 1988.[12] Under Cain's leadership, Godfather's closed approximately 200 restaurants and eliminated several thousand jobs, and by doing so returned to profitability.[33] 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.[12]
Cain served as Chairman of the Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City Omaha Branch from January 1, 1989 to December 31, 1991.[14] He became a member of the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 1992.[14] He served as deputy chairman from January 1, 1992 to December 31, 1994, and then as its chairman until August 19, 1996,[14] when he resigned to become active in national politics.[44]
Cain left Godfather's Pizza in 1996 and moved to Washington, D.C. 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.[17] Cain's lobbying work for the Association led to a number of connections to Republican lawmakers and politicians.[33] 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.[45]
Cain was on the board of directors of several companies, including Aquila, Inc., Nabisco, Whirlpool, Reader's Digest, and AGCO, Inc.[20][21][13]
After Cain's term with the restaurant advocacy group ended in 1999, he returned to Omaha for about a year, then moved to his hometown of Atlanta in 2000.[46]
A sometime gospel vocalist, Cain performed on the 13-track album Sunday Morning released by Selah Sound Production & Melodic Praise Records in 1996.[47] Cain performed "Imagine There's No Pizza", a gospel-flavored parody of the John Lennon songs "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance", at an Omaha Press Club event in 1991. A video of this performance became popular during his 2012 campaign. Prior to performing the song, Cain offered the following introduction:
One of the wonderful things about living in America is the freedom we have to laugh at ourselves. In fact, we have so many freedoms that it is easy to sometimes take them for granted. So it is helpful sometimes to try and imagine what it's like if we were to lose some of those freedoms.
Cain performed the song with female backup singers while he wore white preacher's robes. The song begins with the lyrics:
Imagine there's no pizza / I couldn't if I tried / Eating only tacos / Or Kentucky Fried.[48][49][50][51]
Cain writes a syndicated op-ed column, which is distributed by the North Star Writers Group.[52]
Cain wrote "The Intangibles of Implementation" in the technical journal Interfaces (Vol. 9, No. 5, 1979, pp. 144–147), published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).
Until February 2011, Cain hosted The Herman Cain Show on Atlanta talk radio station WSB, a Cox Radio property.[53]
Cain appeared in the 2009 documentary An Inconvenient Tax.[54]
Cain publicly opposed the Clinton health care plan of 1993. As president-elect of the National Restaurant Association, he challenged Bill Clinton on the costs of the employer mandate contained within the bill and criticized its effect on small businesses. Bob Cohn of Newsweek described Cain as one of the primary opponents of the plan:
Joshua Green of The Atlantic has called Cain's exchange with Clinton his "auspicious debut on the national political stage".[55]
Conservative politician and former Housing Secretary Jack Kemp was so impressed with Cain's performance that he chartered a plane to Nebraska to meet Cain after the debate. Cain credits Kemp with his becoming interested in politics.[56]
Cain was a senior economic advisor to the Bob Dole presidential campaign in 1996.[16]
Cain briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000; he says it was more about making political statements than winning the nomination. "George W. Bush was the chosen one, he had the campaign DNA that followers look for." However, Cain went on to state, "I believe that I had a better message and I believe that I was the better messenger."[57] After ending his own campaign, however, he endorsed Steve Forbes.[58]
In 2004, Cain ran for the U.S. Senate in Georgia and did not win in the primaries. He was pursuing the seat that came open with the retirement of Democrat Zell Miller. Cain sought the Republican nomination, facing congressmen Johnny Isakson and Mac Collins in the primary. Cain and Collins both hoped to deny Isakson a majority on primary day in order to force him into a runoff. Collins tried to paint Cain as a moderate,[59] citing Cain's support for affirmative action programs, while Cain argued that he was a conservative, noting that he opposed the legality of abortion except when the mother's life is threatened.[60] Cain finished second in the primary with 26.2% of the vote, ahead of Collins, who won 20.6%, but because Isakson won 53.2% of the vote, Isakson was able to avoid a runoff.[61]
Starting in 2005, Cain worked for the political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) alongside Mark Block. Block would later become campaign manager for Cain's 2012 Presidential run and would be joined in Cain's campaign by several other AFP employees. Cain continued to receive honorariums for speaking at AFP events until he announced his campaign for the Republican nomination.[62] Cain's senior economic advisor during his 2012 presidential campaign, Rich Lowrie, who helped devise Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan, had served on the AFP board.[63]
In 2006, Cain voiced several radio ads encouraging people of color to vote Republican; the ads were funded by a group called America's PAC and its founder J. Patrick Rooney. These ads were criticized for making use of racial stereotypes, such as one in which one black man refers to black women as "hos". That ad also claimed that Democrats didn't care about black infants because they support legalized abortion. Another ad attempted to link Democrats to white supremacist David Duke, since Duke opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The ads stirred controversy in the communities in which they ran.[64]
In 2010, "Cain addressed more than 40 Tea Party rallies, hit all the early presidential states, and became a YouTube sensation."[7] On September 24, 2010, Cain announced that he was considering a run for president in 2012 on the Republican Party ticket.[65] In December, Cain was the "surprise choice" for 2012 GOP nominee in a RedState.com reader poll.[7] Cain announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee on January 12, 2011,[66][67] and officially announced his candidacy on May 21 in Atlanta.[68]
A popular speaker, Cain's addresses to conservative groups have been well-received,[69][70] and in late September and early October 2011, Cain won straw polls in Florida, Illinois, and at the National Federation of Republican Women's Convention.[71][72] "My focus groups have consistently picked Herman Cain as the most likeable candidate in the debates," says GOP pollster Frank Luntz. "Don't underestimate the power of likability, even in a Republican primary. The more likeable the candidate, the greater the electoral potential."[71][73]
Cain's debate performances were strong, and well received by the live audiences. Throughout October, Cain gained traction in the polls, which indicated that his level of support was rivaling that of frontrunner Mitt Romney.
In July 2011, an advisor suggested that his campaign's tax policy plan be called "the Optimal Tax", but Cain rejected the name, saying "[w]e're just going to call it what it is: 9–9–9 Plan."[74] The plan would replace the current tax code with a 9-percent business transactions tax, a 9-percent personal income tax, and a 9-percent federal sales tax. During a debate on October 12, Cain said his plan "expands the base," arguing that "[w]hen you expand the base, we can arrive at the lowest possible rate, which is 9-9-9."[75] An analysis released to Bloomberg News by the campaign claimed that the rate for each of the three taxes could in fact be as low as 7.3%, but "poverty grants" — which Cain has described as a lower rate in targeted "empowerment zones"[76] — necessitated a national rate of 9%.[75] Paul Krugman has criticized the plan, saying it shifts much of the current tax burden from the rich to the poor.[77] Arthur Laffer,[74] Lawrence Kudlow,[78] the Club for Growth,[79] and Congressman Paul Ryan[80] have spoken favorably of "9-9-9". On October 21, Cain told a crowd in Detroit that the plan would be 9-0-9 for the poor, saying that "if you are at or below the poverty level ... then you don't pay that middle 9 on your income."[81]
Cain's 9-9-9 plan attracted skepticism from his fellow candidates at numerous Republican debates.[82]
In late October 2011, Politico reported that Cain had been accused by two women of sexual harassment and misconduct during his time as CEO of the National Restaurant Association in the late 1990s.[18][83] Harassment accusations have since been made by two additional women. Cain denies all allegations of sexual misconduct, while acknowledging that the restaurant organization made financial settlements to the complainants. Two of the four women have come forward publicly: Sharon Bialek and Karen Kraushaar.[84]
On November 28, 2011, Cain asserted that a woman named Ginger White would be claiming to have had an affair with him, and that the allegation was not true.[85] An interview with White was aired an hour later on Fox 5 in Atlanta. In the interview, White said the affair lasted 13 years and ended right before Cain announced his presidential campaign.[86] Cain's lawyer said that White's depiction of the relationship "appears to be an accusation of private, alleged consensual conduct between adults" and "not a proper subject of inquiry by the media or the public".[85][87] In a subsequent interview with Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's Last Word, White apologized to Cain's wife and family. She described the relationship as involving sex and travel, and said that at times Cain had given her money without his wife's knowledge to help with "bills and various things".[88]
Cain denied he had had an affair with White, but acknowledged helping her pay bills and expenses. He also said his wife was unaware of his relationship with White.[89]
On December 3, 2011, Cain announced he was "suspending" his campaign for the presidency following allegations of sexual harassment and adultery, which he denied[90] but were widely considered responsible for the sharp drop in his poll numbers.[91]
Cain's published works include:
Business positions | ||
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Preceded by William Theisen |
President and Chief Executive Officer of Godfather's Pizza 1986–1996 |
Succeeded by Ron Gartlan |
Preceded by Burton A. Dole, Jr |
Deputy Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City 1992–1994 |
Succeeded by A. Drue Jennings |
Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City 1995–1996 |
||
Preceded by William Fisher |
President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Restaurant Association 1996–1999 |
Succeeded by Steven C. Anderson |
|