Former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with metastasized stage-four pancreatic cancer. The 53-year-old former lawmaker and university president described the diagnosis as terminal and emphasized that his Christian faith is central to how he views his condition and the future.
“Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die,” Sasse stated on Tuesday. “Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.”
Sasse paid tribute to his support system, writing, “I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, ‘Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.’ Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.”
Acknowledging the emotional toll on his family, Sasse shared, “Still, 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. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are.” He recounted recent milestones from his children’s lives, including Corrie’s commissioning into the Air Force, Alex graduating college early while teaching multiple science courses, and Breck learning to drive.
The diagnosis, shared just days before Christmas, prompted Sasse to reflect on the season’s deeper meaning. “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.”
He wrote: “Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say ‘hope’ when what we mean is ‘optimism.’” He said optimism is useful but “insufficient” when confronting death directly: “It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle.”
Rather than clinging to sentimentality, Sasse described a faith that meets suffering head-on. “A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.”
“Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet,” Sasse observed.
Drawing from Isaiah’s prophecies, Sasse noted how Scripture reframes even the most challenging realities. “Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings,” he wrote. “But it does put it in eternity’s perspective.” He followed with a line from “Amazing Grace” to underscore that eternal view: “When we’ve been there 10,000 years… We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise.”
Even while facing grim odds, he vowed not to go quietly: “I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight.” Expressing gratitude for medical advancements, 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.”
He remarked that the process of dying “is still something to be lived,” adding that his household was embracing “a lot of gallows humor,” and that he was committed “to run through the irreverent tape.”
Concluding his message, Sasse offered a blessing rooted in Scripture:
“But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned… For to us a son is given’ (Isaiah 9).”
Sasse, who stepped down from the U.S. Senate in 2023, had served two terms representing Nebraska. His resignation came in part due to frustration with the political climate in Washington, DC, and to take on the role of president at the University of Florida. He later stepped back from that role to care for his wife Melissa, following her epilepsy diagnosis and emerging memory issues.
In his tenure at the University of Florida, he took a firm stance in support of Jewish students during pro-Hamas protests on campus in 2024, declaring, “UF is proud to be home to the most Jewish students anywhere in the country. This is the most Jewish university in the country, and it is great to be a Jewish gator.”
Sasse also opposed the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the U.S. Supreme Court, citing what he described as her lack of a discernible judicial philosophy, which he said should have been made “clear and understandable” to the committee. He joined other Republicans in raising concerns about Jackson’s sentencing record in child pornography cases, including a lenient sentence for convicted sex offender Wesley Hawkins. During the confirmation fight, ABC’s The View co-host Joy Behar took aim at Sasse directly, declaring, “The Ben Sasses of the world are more dangerous than even the Lindsey Grahams.” Despite the opposition, Jackson was ultimately confirmed to the Supreme Court.
