Ben Sasse


Benjamin Eric Sasse is an American politician and academic administrator. He represented Nebraska in the United States Senate from 2015 to 2023, resigning to become the president of the University of Florida. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is a critic of Donald Trump and was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial.
Born in Plainview, Nebraska, Sasse studied at Harvard University, St. John's College, and Yale University. He taught at the University of Texas and served as an assistant secretary in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the George W. Bush administration. In 2010, Sasse was named the 15th president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.
In 2014, Sasse ran for the U.S. Senate. He defeated Democratic nominee David Domina, 64.4% to 31.5%. Sasse was re-elected in 2020.
Sasse resigned from the U.S. Senate on January 8, 2023 to become president of the University of Florida. On July 18, 2024, he announced his resignation from the position effective July 31, 2024, citing his wife's health issues. In December 2025, Sasse announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.

Early life and education

Sasse was born on February 22, 1972, in Plainview, Nebraska, the son of Gary Lynn Sasse, a high school teacher and football coach, and Linda Sasse. He graduated from Fremont Senior High School in 1990 and was valedictorian of his class.
Sasse graduated from Harvard College in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in government. He also studied at the University of Oxford during the fall of 1992 on a junior year abroad program. In 1998, Sasse earned a Master of Arts in liberal studies from the Graduate Institute at St. John's College. He earned a Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and, in 2004, a PhD in history from Yale University. His dissertation was directed by Jon Butler and Harry Stout. Sasse's doctoral dissertation, "The Anti-Madalyn Majority: Secular Left, Religious Right, and the Rise of Reagan's America", won the Theron Rockwell Field and George Washington Egleston Prizes.
In 2000, The Mustard Seed Foundation selected Sasse as a Harvey Fellow.

Early career

From September 1994 to November 1995, Sasse worked as an associate consultant at the management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group. For the next year, he served as consultant/executive director for Christians United For Reformation. During his tenure, CURE merged with the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and Sasse became executive director of ACE in Anaheim, California.
From January 2004 to January 2005, Sasse served as chief of staff for the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy and as a part-time assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, commuting to Austin to teach. Sasse left the Department of Justice to serve as chief of staff to Representative Jeff Fortenberry from January to July 2005.
Sasse then advised the United States Department of Homeland Security on national security issues from July to September 2005 as a consultant. He moved to Austin, Texas, to resume his professorship full-time from September 2005 to December 2006.
From December 2006 to December 2007, Sasse served as counselor to the secretary at the United States Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., advising the secretary on a broad spectrum of health policy issues, from healthcare access to food safety and security.
In July 2007, President George W. Bush nominated Sasse to the post of assistant secretary for planning and evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Senate confirmed him in December 2007 and he served until the end of the Bush administration, in January 2009. While at HHS, Sasse took an unpaid leave from the University of Texas.
During 2009, Sasse advised private equity clients and health care investors and taught at the University of Texas. In October 2009, he officially joined the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs Center for Politics and Governance as a fellow, before being appointed president of Midland University. While at Texas, he was critical of Obama-era proposals to expand public health care programs. He criticized public-option proposals as a step toward single-payer health insurance and health-care rationing. He supported a plan to lower the cost of Medicare by raising the eligibility age and cutting benefits. He also coauthored a paper proposing limits to Medicaid reimbursements for hospital care for the uninsured.

Midland Lutheran College

Sasse was announced as the 15th president of Midland Lutheran College in October 2009. At 37, he was one of the youngest chief executives in American higher education when he took over leadership of the 128-year-old institution in spring 2010. Sasse's grandfather, Elmer Sasse, had worked for Midland as vice president of finance. The school was experiencing financial and academic difficulties; Sasse has been credited with "turn it around", rebranding "Midland Lutheran College" as Midland University, instituting new policies, and "prodigious fundraising".
Sasse was installed as president on December 10, 2010. When he was appointed, enrollment was at a historic low and the college was "on the verge of bankruptcy". During his tenure as president, enrollment grew from 590 to 1,300 students. When nearby Dana College was forced to close, Sasse hired much of its faculty and enabled most of its students to transfer to Midland.
When Sasse announced his intention to run for U.S. Senate, he offered to resign his post at Midland Lutheran College. Instead, the board asked him to stay under a partial leave of absence; in October 2013, his employment contract was amended to reduce his pay. After winning the Republican primary election, Sasse announced that he would step down as president of Midland Lutheran College, effective December 31, 2014.

U.S. Senate

2014 election

In October 2013, Sasse announced his candidacy for the Senate seat held by Republican Mike Johanns, who was not seeking reelection. As of October 2013, his fundraising total of nearly $815,000 from individual donors in his first quarter broke Nebraska's previous record of $526,000 from individual donors, set in 2007 by Johanns while he was U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
Upon announcing his candidacy, Sasse expressed strong opposition to the Affordable Care Act. His primary opponent, former state Treasurer Shane Osborn, questioned the depth of Sasse's opposition to the ACA, publicizing articles and speeches Sasse delivered during and after the act's passage through Congress. According to the Omaha World-Herald, the Osborn campaign appeared "intent on questioning whether Sasse is a true conservative." The Osborn campaign cited a 2009 Bloomberg Businessweek Sasse column titled "Health-Care Reform: The Rush to Pass a Bad Bill". The Osborn campaign also cited a 2010 speech in which Sasse said Republicans would probably lack the votes to repeal the ACA, that "a middle-class entitlement has never been repealed", and that Republicans had staged "symbolic repeal votes" instead of offering a viable alternative to the ACA. Sasse's response was that in his articles and speeches, he was describing the political landscape rather than giving his own opinions on the ACA's merits; to a World-Herald reporter, he said, "I have never changed my position on thinking Obamacare is a bad idea".
On May 13, 2014, Sasse won 92 of 93 counties and secured the Republican nomination with 109,829 votes, or 49.4% of all votes cast; banker Sid Dinsdale came in second, with 49,829 votes, followed by Osborn, with 46,850 votes.
On November 4, 2014, Sasse won the general election, defeating Democratic nominee David Domina with 64.4% of the vote to Domina's 31.5%.

2020 election

In 2020, Sasse defeated Democrats Chris Janicek, who won the Democratic primary, and Preston Love Jr., who had the support of the state Democratic party. Sasse received 62.7% of the vote.

Tenure

Sasse was sworn in as a member of the U.S. Senate on January 6, 2015.
In February 2019, Sasse was one of 16 senators to vote against legislation preventing a partial government shutdown and containing $1.375 billion for barriers along the U.S.–Mexico border that included 55 miles of fencing.
In March 2019, Sasse was one of 12 senators to cosponsor a resolution that would impose a constitutional amendment limiting the Supreme Court to nine justices. The resolution was introduced after multiple Democratic presidential candidates expressed openness to increasing the number of seats on the Supreme Court.
On February 5, 2020, Sasse joined almost all Republican senators in voting to acquit Trump on both articles of impeachment during Trump's first impeachment trial.
Sasse was participating in the January 6, 2021, certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Donald Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. In response, Sasse held Trump responsible for the storming of the Capitol, asserting that Trump "delighted" in the attack and was a "broken man". Sasse voted to certify Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election. After the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for the second time, Sasse joined six other Republican senators in voting to convict Trump on February 13, 2021.
Sasse resigned from the United States Senate on January 8, 2023 to become president of the University of Florida.

Committees

Sasse served on the following committees in the 117th Congress: