Herman Cain, co-chair of Black Voices for Trump and survivor of stage 4 colon cancer, passed away at 74 after being hospitalized with the coronavirus. Cain’s death was announced Tuesday on his website by editor Dan Calabrese. Calabrese said the conservative businessman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate had “gone to be with the Lord.”

“Herman Cain — our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us — has passed away,” Calabrese said in the blog post. “We all prayed so hard every day. We knew the time would come when the Lord would call him home, but we really liked having him here with us, and we held out hope he’d have a full recovery.”

His passing was also confirmed in a tweet from his personal Twitter account. It read: “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.”

Cain first announced his battle with COVID-19 on July 2nd, just a little over a week after attending a rally for President Donald Trump in Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the time of the statement, he was not on a respirator and was “awake and alert”.

Over the weeks, tweets came out about his progress and things seemed to be going well. A tweet on July 5th said: “This is a tough virus, but we serve a tougher God. Herman wants to get back in action soon, so please continue praying.”

In a press briefing on July 30th, President Trump expressed sympathy for his death.

“Let me begin by expressing our sadness at the passing of a wonderful man and a dear friend of mine, Herman Cain. He was a very special person. I got to know him very well…And we send our prayers to Herman’s great wife, Gloria.”

“And I have to say, America grieves for all of the 150,000 Americans who had their lives taken by this horrible, invisible enemy. We mourn their loss, as a nation; we mourn their loss, as people — as people that love one another,” he continued.