Former Presidential candidate Herman Cain has died from Coronavirus after attending a Donald Trump rally in Tulsa.
Mr Cain, 74, was a staunch Trump supporter and refused to wear a mask during the pandemic.
He attended the controversial Oklahoma rally last month - where many attendees crowded close together without wearing face masks.
Two weeks later, he was diagnosed with Covid-19 and hospitalised on July 2 - although a statement at the time said: “There is no way of knowing for sure how or where Mr. Cain contracted the coronavirus.”
Just before announcing his diagnosis, Mr Cain posted support for not making masks compulsory at a July 4 event at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota that Trump was planning to attend.
"Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!" he tweeted.
A statement published on his website and Facebook page today read: "We're heartbroken, and the world is poorer: Herman Cain has gone to be with the Lord.”
Mr Cain, who called himself an ABC man - "American Black Conservative" - had just started hosting a new show on Newsmax TV and hoped to play a role in the 2020 presidential election campaign, the statement said.
Mr Cain started his career as a civilian employee for the U.S.
Navy and worked for Pillsbury and Burger King before becoming chief executive of Godfather's Pizza.
President Trump later considered appointing him to a role in the US Federal Reserve.
The Trump campaign’s rally in Tulsa drew widespread criticism due to the lack of social distancing in the venue, and took place during a spike in infections in Oklahoma.
Attendees were required to agree that they would not hold the campaign responsible for any Covid-19 exposure at the event.
Some eight members of the campaign’s advance team in Tulsa tested positive for the virus.
Mr Cain led some polls early in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, buoyed by his signature 9-9-9 proposal for a flat 9% corporate, income and sales tax.
During one campaign debate in Iowa, he quoted a “poet” as having once said: “Life can be a challenge, life can seem impossible, but it's never easy when there's so much on the line.”
The quote originally came from the song The Power Of One, performed by Donna Summer for the soundtrack of Pokemon Movie 2000.
Mr Cain later said he’d heard the song during the Olympics and committed it to memory.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, he became a supporter of Trump, who last year planned to nominate Cain to a seat on the powerful U.S. Federal Reserve Board, which sets benchmark interest rates.
The potential nomination faced immediate resistance, even within the Republican Party, as critics expressed concerns about Trump loyalists serving on the traditionally nonpartisan board.
Cain subsequently withdrew, citing what he said would be a decrease in influence and pay.
