Dec. 23 (UPI) — Former Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with stage-four pancreatic cancer, calling it “a death sentence.”
The conservative who represented Florida for eight years in the Senate shared the news in a post on X.
“This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse wrote.
“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’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight.”
Sasse resigned from the U.S. Senate in early 2024 to take a position as president of the University of Florida. He was two years into his second Senate term at the time.
During his tenure, Sasse stood out as one of the Republican Party’s more vocal critics of President Donald Trump. He was among seven Republican senators who voted to convict the former president during his second impeachment trial in 2021.
In his farewell address on the Senate floor in January 2023, Sasse criticized lawmakers for growing divisions and their ties to special interest groups.
“When we’re being honest with each other, which usually means when on one of the very rare occasions where cameras aren’t present, we all know that a big chunk of the performative yelling that happens here and in every hearing room is just about being booked for even more performative yelling at night on TV,” Sasse said.
He stepped down less than two years into his role at the University of Florida after his wife, Melissa Sasse, began experiencing serious health challenges. She was diagnosed with epilepsy and later suffered memory issues following an aneurysm and a series of strokes in 2007.
The couple share three children — Corrie, Alex, and Breck.
“I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints,” Sasse said of his family in Tuesday’s statement.
“There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.”
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