AARON SANDERFORD and JAY WAAGMEESTER
Nebraska Examiner
OMAHA — Former Nebraska Republican U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse is dying of “metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer,” he announced on social media Tuesday.
“Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do,” Sasse wrote.
Most of the political world knows Sasse from his time tussling with President Donald Trump over the direction of the Republican Party, including being one of seven Republicans who voted to convict the president following his impeachment in 2021.
Sasse has been, in many ways, a traditional small-government conservative with an intellectual bent. He often critiqued the GOP’s turn toward populism under Trump and paid a price in public.
Intellectual senator
He made waves as a candidate running from academia, as then-president of Midland University in Fremont before being elected to the Senate in 2014. His friends describe him as an intense and philosophical thinker.
His foes describe him as a man who likes to prove he is the smartest person in the room. He and his family had discussed moving back to Nebraska, to the lakes, from Florida.
In the early days, he pressed his fellow Republicans to offer solutions to issues like health care instead of just talking about what they were against.
In practice, he told reporters he found the Senate and its politically limiting ways stifling to the sort of committee work and legislative progress he sought.
He did not ever repeal and replace Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, nor did he muster support for a clear legislative alternative.
But he found his legislative niche pushing back against the rise of China and the malfeasance of Russia online and in the real world, the changing face of war.
He told Americans early and often about the societal and economic disruption artificial intelligence would bring, calling it the next industrial revolution.
Much of his late Senate work focused on what he called “the future of work,” and he spoke often about the need to change education and training to meet new needs.
University of Florida presidency
In 2022, Sasse was named sole finalist for the University of Florida presidency, leaving the Senate for the role in early 2023. Secrecy around the search and concerns about Sasse’s political background stirred campus before he took office.
The UF Faculty Senate voted “no confidence” in the presidential search process, citing a law passed earlier that year to close presidential searches to the public until the final stage.
Sasse left office after 17 months, amid concerns about his spending habits as president among lawmakers, the Governor’s Office, and then-Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.
University leadership responded to the diagnosis Tuesday afternoon, with UF Board of Trustees Chair Mori Hosseini and interim President Donald Landry extending “sincerest thoughts and prayers” to the Sasse family.
“We were shocked and saddened by the news of President Sasse’s illness,” the two wrote in a joint statement. “This was staggering news. And yet, true to his character, Ben’s first instinct is to give comfort and reassurance to those of us who have known and admired him.”
The Independent Florida Alligator reported after Sasse resigned, that he had “channeled millions to GOP allies, secretive contracts, tripling spending by the previous president.
“A majority of the spending surge was driven by lucrative contracts with big-name consulting firms and high-salaried, remote positions for Sasse’s former U.S. Senate staff and Republican officials,” the newspaper reported.
Sasse then became a professor at the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education at UF, a hub with a “classical” mission that aims to produce people working in law, government, public policy, finance, health and nonprofits.
His bio on the Florida website points to his “service-leadership posture” and the university’s response to “post-October 7th campus unrest” during his presidency. It also mentions his implementing post-tenure review and launching of the President’s Strategic Initiative, targeted funding for student experience and interdisciplinary scholarship.
Florida State Rep. Allison Tant, a Democrat from Tallahassee, replied to Sasse’s social media post, saying, “Praying for your strength and peace.”
Family health fight
Sasse has said he resigned from the Florida presidency to help care for his wife, Melissa, who had been ill.
Sasse typically dealt with her epilepsy and other ailments quietly, telling friends that his teens would be fine because they were a family that would work together.
He celebrated his closeness with Melissa since stepping back in the 185-word statement he posted, calling her “the best friend a man could ever have.”
“This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad,” he wrote. “I can’t begin to describe how great my people are.”
Sasse has three children, two daughters and a son. His post referenced his joy in their successes — one in the Air Force, one teaching and one learning to drive.
In it, he spoke about the situation his health would put his family through, not getting to walk his daughter down the aisle, burying him.
But he layered his message as he did in some of his speeches, with themes and reflections on the faith that buttressed him during difficult times with his wife and kids.
Sasse said he wouldn’t go down without a fight. He said he finds comfort in the idea of Christmas. And “gallows humor.” He said death and dying are not the same.
“We hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place,” he said.”But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.”
