Former US Sen. Ben Sasse reveals he has stage-four pancreatic cancer: ‘I’ve got less time than I’d prefer’

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN/Gray News) - Former Nebraska U.S. Senator Ben Sasse has announced he has stage-four pancreatic cancer and is not expected to live much longer.

“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 said. “Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.”

Sasse, 53, shared his diagnosis in a statement posted online Tuesday.

“I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad,” Sasse wrote.

He and his wife, Melissa, have three children.

“I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight,” Sasse said. “One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jaw-dropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more.

Sasse was first elected to the Senate in 2014. He won reelection in 2020 and resigned in 2023 to serve as the 13th president of the University of Florida.

He served as the university’s president for nearly two years before resigning in 2024 after his wife was diagnosed with epilepsy.

“Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived," Sasse wrote in his statement.

Sasse worked as an assistant secretary of Health and Human Services under George W. Bush. He also served as president of Midland University, a Christian university in Nebraska, before running for the Senate.

Sasse was a known critic of President Donald Trump. He was one of seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial regarding the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.