Former Nebraska U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, a conservative who rebuked political tribalism and stood out as a longtime critic of President Donald Trump, introduced Tuesday stated he was recognized with superior pancreatic most cancers.
Sasse, 53, made the announcement on social media, saying he realized of the illness final week and is “now marching to the beat of a faster drummer.”
“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase,” Sasse wrote. “Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.”
Sasse was first elected to the Senate in 2014. He comfortably received reelection in 2020 after heading off a pro-Trump major challenger. Sasse drew the ire of GOP activists for his vocal criticism of Trump’s character and insurance policies, together with questioning his ethical values and saying he cozied as much as adversarial overseas leaders.
Sasse was considered one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict the previous president of “ incitement of insurrection ” after the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. After threats of a public censure again dwelling, he prolonged his critique to occasion loyalists who blindly worship one man and rejected him for his refusal to bend the knee.
He resigned from the Senate in 2023 to function the thirteenth president of the College of Florida after a contentious approval course of. He left that submit the next 12 months after his spouse was recognized with epilepsy.
Sasse, who has levels from Harvard, St. John’s Faculty and Yale, labored as an assistant secretary of Well being and Human Companies beneath President George W. Bush. He served as president of Midland College, a small Christian college in japanese Nebraska, earlier than he ran for the Senate.
Sasse and his spouse have three kids.
“I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more,” Sasse wrote. “Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived.”
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