washington — Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has terminal stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Sasse, 53, announced his diagnosis on X, calling it a “death sentence.”
“Friends – this is a difficult letter to write, but since some of you have begun to suspect something, I’ll get right to the point: I was diagnosed last week with metastatic stage 4 pancreatic cancer and I am dying,” he wrote.
Sasse, who served as a Nebraska senator from 2015 to 2023, resigned from office become president from the University of Florida. he Step down He resigned from the position in July 2024, citing his wife’s health concerns. He and his wife, Melissa, have three children.
“It’s hard as a man who works and builds, but it’s even harder as a husband and father,” Sasse wrote in the post.
“Now is not a good time to tell your onlookers that you are now marching to the beat of a faster drummer, but the season of Advent is not the worst,” Sasse added. “As a Christian, the weeks leading up to Christmas are a time to turn our hearts to hope for the future.”
FILE PHOTO: Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse during a Senate hearing on April 27, 2021. /Photo credit: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
In the Senate, Sasse, a conservative, has sometimes criticized Trump even though he aligns with the Trump administration on many policies. SARS Voting “guilty” in the wake of Mr. Trump’s impeachment trial. He was among six Republican colleagues who rioted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but the vote fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to convict.
Born in Nebraska to a high school teacher and football coach, Sasse earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University before studying at Oxford University and St. John’s College. He received his PhD in history from Yale University.
Sasse’s former colleagues in Congress expressed disappointment at the news.
“Ben, thank you for reminding us that it’s how we live that matters, not how long we live,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, wrote.
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