Ben Sasse to Retire From Senate for Job as President of University of Florida
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Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) will resign from the Senate by the end of the year, with plans to take the helm as president of the University of Florida.
CNN’s Manu Raju reported Sasse, 50, is expected to call it quits before his term ends to make the move to Gainesville.
News: Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse plans to resign from the Senate by the end of the year to take a job as the president of the University of Florida, according to a source familiar with the deliberations.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 6, 2022
The Tampa Bay Times reported Sasse was chosen as the sole finalist to lead the school:
Sasse is the University of Florida’s likely next president after the search committee announced on Thursday that it was unanimously recommending him as the sole finalist.
The committee touted his experience in higher education — a historian by training, he was formerly the president of Midland University in Nebraska, taught at the University of Texas and has repeatedly discussed his vision for reforming American higher education. But his political experience will undoubtedly be useful in this role leading UF, as well.
Sasse, who was first elected to the Senate in 2014, shared the report on Twitter without comment.
— Ben Sasse (@BenSasse) October 6, 2022
Sasse opposed the election of then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016. After the 2020 election, he called Trump’s rigged voting claims “lies.”
Last February, when it was reported the Nebraska GOP’s State Central Committee was considering censuring him for a lack of loyalty to Trump, he responded with a lengthy video.
Sasse said Trump “riled a mob” to attack the Capitol and accused some members of his party of buying into “conspiracy theories.”
“Politics isn’t about the weird worship of one dude,” he said. “The party can purge Trump skeptics. But I’d like to convince you that not only is that civic cancer for the nation, it’s just terrible for our party.”
