Former Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.
Sasse, 53, resigned from his second term in the Senate in 2023 to become president of the University of Florida. He later left that position in July 2024, citing concerns about the health of his wife, who was diagnosed with epilepsy.
“Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse wrote in a lengthy statement posted to social media. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”
“I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers,” Sasse continued. “As one of them put it, ‘Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.’ Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.”
Ben and Melissa Sasse are the parents of three children and the former senator highlighted the pain of dying while they are still in the early stages of life. Sasse shared in his post that his eldest daughter joined the Air Force, his second daughter recently graduated from college and his 14 year-old son is learning to drive.
“This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad,” added the Nebraska Republican.
Sasse served eight years in the Senate after being first elected in 2014. He was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Sasse also highlighted his Christian faith in his statement announcing the diagnosis.
“I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight,” Sasse wrote in the statement. “One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived.”
“But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9),” Sasse continued.
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