Benjamin Eric “Ben” Sasse, who served as the junior United States senator from Nebraska from 2015 to 2023, announced on Dec. 23 that he was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
The 53-year-old suggested that he would consider treatment but indicated that his life expectancy was now limited.
“Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die. Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence,” wrote Sasse.
“I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jaw-dropping advances science has made in the past few years in immunotherapy and more,” he added.
Sasse’s message included expressions of optimism drawn from his Christian faith. He also described the recent time spent with his wife, who was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2024, and three children.
At stage 4, the cancer is considered incurable by surgery to remove tumors and is only treatable through chemotherapy.
Sasse was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2014 after serving as the president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.
During his time in the body, he voted in a conservative manner but frequently opposed the policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Sasse was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump on articles of impeachment during his second such trial in 2021, following the events of Jan. 6 of that year.
Sasse resigned as a senator in 2022 after being appointed to serve as president of the University of Florida, located in Gainesville, where he began service in 2023. He was succeeded in the Senate by former Gov. Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.).
During his tenure at the University of Florida, Sasse attracted national attention for his response to pro-Palestinian protests on campus, which occurred at many colleges and universities following the Hamas terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas.
The university police, at Sasse’s direction, arrested several protesters, banned them from campus, and sought state criminal charges against them.
Sasse resigned from the University of Florida 17 months into his five-year tenure, in July of 2024, citing his wife’s diagnosis and the desire to spend more time with his children.
During the George W. Bush administration, he was the assistant secretary of health and human services for planning and evaluation and the chief of staff at the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Policy.
He was also the chief of staff to former U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.).
