BREAKING: Longtime GOP Senator Announces Cancer Diagnosis: ‘It’s A Death Sentence’

Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse revealed Tuesday that he has terminal stage-four pancreatic cancer, calling the diagnosis a “death sentence.”

Sasse, 53, shared the news in a blunt post on X, saying his illness has already spread.

“Friends – 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,” he wrote.

The Nebraska Republican served in the U.S. Senate from 2015 to 2023 before stepping down to become president of the University of Florida. He resigned from that post in July 2024, citing serious health issues facing his wife.

Friends-

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.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence.…

— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) December 23, 2025

Sasse and his wife, Melissa, have three children.

“This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad,” Sasse wrote.

He framed the timing of the announcement through his Christian faith as the Christmas season approaches.

“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,” he wrote. “As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.”

During his time in the Senate, Sasse built a reputation as a conservative willing at times to buck President Donald Trump, even while backing much of the administration’s agenda. He voted “guilty” in Trump’s impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach, joining six other Republicans. The vote fell short of the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

Born and raised in Nebraska, Sasse is the son of a high school teacher and football coach. He earned a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University, studied at Oxford University and St. John’s College, and later received a doctorate in history from Yale University.

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