Former Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with "metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer," writing in an X post that the diagnosis is "a death sentence."
"Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die," Sasse, 53, wrote in a lengthy post. "Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do."
"This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad," Sasse later wrote, going on to praise his wife and three children.
Sasse represented Nebraska in the Senate from 2015 until early January 2023, when he resigned to become president of the University of Florida. Sasse stepped down as the university's president last year amid his wife's struggles with epilepsy and memory issues.
Sasse, a staunch conservative and self-described "constitutional warrior," was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial on charges he incited an insurrection. Just three of those Republicans — Maine's Susan Collins, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski and Louisiana's Bill Cassidy — remain in the Senate. Trump was acquitted.
"I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight," Sasse wrote. "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. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape."
