Former Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with metastatic stage four pancreatic cancer, and called it a death sentence.
“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,” Sasse said in a statement.
“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 wrote.
The former two-term senator, who is 53 years old, received the diagnosis last week.
He served in the Senate from early 2015 through early 2023, then went on to serve as president of the University of Florida.
Last year he stepped down from the helm of the university after his wife’s epilepsy diagnosis. He celebrated his faith in Christ as a
“As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come,” Sasse 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.’ To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.”
“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,” he wrote.
During the past year, Sasse shared that he and his wife, Melissa, have grown even closer since he stepped back from public life, and celebrated his family.
“During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak),” Sasse wrote.
“I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. 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,” Sasse wrote.
“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),” he wrote.
Vice President JD Vance was among those who responded to Sasse’s cancer announcement Tuesday. “I’m very sorry to hear this Ben. May God bless you and your family,” Vance wrote.
United States Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska, who served with Sasse during his entire tenure in the Senate, shared her condolences.
“So very saddened to hear the news about Ben Sasse this morning. I know he will face this difficult challenge anchored in his strong Christian faith and bolstered by the love of family and friends. Ben, I am keeping you and your loved ones in my prayers,” Fischer said.
The Nebraska-born son of a high school teacher and football coach, Sasse earned his bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard before studying at Oxford University and St. John’s College. He received his PhD in history from Yale University.
Prior to service in the Senate, he was a professor at the University of Texas, served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, and was president of Midland University in his home state.
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