Benjamin Eric Sasse is an American academic administrator and former politician who is the president of the University of Florida.
63 Facts About Ben Sasse
2.
Ben Sasse served as a United States senator from Nebraska from 2015 to 2023 and is a member of the Republican Party.
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Ben Sasse has taught at the University of Texas and served as an assistant secretary in the US Department of Health and Human Services.
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In 2010, Ben Sasse was named the 15th president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska.
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In 2014, Ben Sasse ran for a vacant seat in the US Senate.
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On February 13,2021, Ben Sasse was one of seven Republican senators to vote to convict Donald Trump of incitement of insurrection in his second impeachment trial.
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Ben Sasse resigned from the Senate on January 8,2023, to succeed Kent Fuchs as president of the University of Florida.
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Ben Sasse graduated from Fremont Senior High School in 1990 and was valedictorian of his class.
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Ben Sasse graduated from Harvard College in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in government.
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Ben Sasse studied at the University of Oxford during the fall of 1992 on a junior year abroad program.
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In 1998, Ben Sasse earned a Master of Arts in liberal studies from the Graduate Institute at St John's College.
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Ben Sasse earned a Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and, in 2004, a PhD in history from Yale University.
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Ben Sasse's dissertation was directed by Jon Butler and Harry Stout.
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From September 1994 to November 1995, Ben Sasse worked as an associate consultant at the management consulting firm Boston Consulting Group.
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From January 2004 to January 2005, Ben Sasse served as chief of staff for the Office of Legal Policy and as a part-time assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, commuting to Austin to teach.
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Ben Sasse left the Department of Justice to serve as chief of staff to Representative Jeff Fortenberry from January to July 2005.
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Ben Sasse then advised the United States Department of Homeland Security on national security issues from July to September 2005 as a consultant.
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Ben Sasse moved to Austin, Texas, to resume his professorship full-time from September 2005 to December 2006.
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From December 2006 to December 2007, Ben Sasse served as counselor to the secretary at the United States Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, DC, advising the secretary on a broad spectrum of health policy issues, from healthcare access to food safety and security.
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Ben Sasse criticized public-option proposals as a step toward single-payer health insurance and health-care rationing.
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Ben Sasse supported a plan to lower the cost of Medicare by raising the eligibility age and cutting benefits.
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Ben Sasse coauthored a paper proposing limits to Medicaid reimbursements for hospital care for the uninsured.
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Ben Sasse was announced as the 15th president of Midland Lutheran College in October 2009.
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When nearby Dana College was forced to close, Ben Sasse hired much of its faculty and enabled most of its students to transfer to Midland.
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When Ben Sasse announced his intention to run for US Senate, he offered to resign his post at Midland.
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In October 2013, Ben Sasse announced his candidacy for the Senate seat held by Republican Mike Johanns, who was not seeking reelection.
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Ben 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".
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In 2020, Ben Sasse defeated Democrats Chris Janicek, who won the Democratic primary, and Preston Love Jr.
29.
Ben Sasse was sworn in as a member of the US Senate on January 6,2015.
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In March 2019, Ben Sasse was one of 12 senators to cosponsor a resolution that would impose a constitutional amendment limiting the Supreme Court to nine justices.
31.
Ben Sasse was participating in the January 6,2021, certification of the 2021 United States Electoral College vote count when Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol.
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Ben Sasse added that he would consider articles of impeachment if presented with them in the Senate, contending that Trump had "disregarded his oath of office".
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Ben Sasse voted to certify Arizona's and Pennsylvania's electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election.
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Ben Sasse resigned from the Senate on January 8,2023, and assumed the presidency of the University of Florida on February 6,2023.
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Ben Sasse served on the following committees in the 117th Congress:.
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In 2019, Ben Sasse introduced the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, calling for unanimous support in the Senate to protect babies born after failed abortion attempts.
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In 2020, Ben Sasse delivered a commencement speech to his high school alma mater in which he attacked China over the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Ben Sasse pledged to support a constitutional amendment setting time limits on the terms in office for US senators and representatives.
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Ben Sasse has proposed repealing the Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
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Ben Sasse voted against the bipartisan criminal justice reform legislation, FIRST STEP Act, which passed by unanimous consent.
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Ben Sasse has been a critic of US president Donald Trump.
42.
In early 2016, during both major parties' presidential primary election seasons, Ben Sasse announced that he would not support Trump should Trump become the party's nominee; he was the first sitting senator to make such an announcement.
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Ben Sasse questioned Trump's commitment to the US Constitution, in particular accusing him of attacking the First Amendment; stated that Trump had refused to condemn the Ku Klux Klan; and suggested that Trump "thinks he's running for King".
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Ben Sasse suggested that he might leave the Republican Party, saying, "if the Republican Party becomes the party of David Duke, Donald Trump, I'm out".
45.
In September 2017, Ben Sasse said he thought about leaving the GOP "every morning" and said he thought of himself as "an independent conservative who caucuses with the Republicans".
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In July 2018, Politico reported that Ben Sasse had "quietly launched a new political non-profit group, fueling speculation that he might launch a Hail Mary bid for president rather than seek another term in the Senate".
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In January 2019, Ben Sasse was one of 11 Republican senators to vote to advance legislation intended to block Trump's intent to lift sanctions against three Russian companies.
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Ben Sasse has been criticized for lambasting Trump but voting in line with his positions.
49.
Ben Sasse voted to acquit Trump in his first impeachment trial in the Senate over his request of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky that he start an investigation into political rival Joe Biden.
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Ben Sasse's family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity.
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Ben Sasse expressed concern that Trump's "stupid political obsessions" and "rage tweeting" alienate voters.
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Ben Sasse acknowledged Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential election and condemned Trump's efforts to overturn the election results.
53.
Ben Sasse was the first Republican to criticize Senator Josh Hawley's plan to challenge the results during Congress's count of the electoral votes on January 6,2021, saying such an action would "disenfranchise millions of Americans" and that it would "point a loaded gun at the heart of legitimate self-government".
54.
Ben Sasse was the first Republican senator to publicly support the 2021 efforts to remove Donald Trump from office, saying that he was willing to consider articles of impeachment because Trump had violated his oath of office.
55.
The county chair lamented that state law did not allow Ben Sasse to be recalled.
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Ben Sasse has said that "innovation" is the solution to climate change.
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Ben Sasse has said he could support "red flag" gun legislation only if it protects the constitutional rights of gun owners, doesn't take away guns without due process, and is limited to people who are convicted of domestic violence or other crimes.
58.
In 2017, with Republicans unable to develop a repeal-and-replace plan that could secure a majority in the Senate, Ben Sasse proposed an immediate repeal with a one-year delay in implementation, and called on the Senate to give up its August recess to allow it to work on a replacement measure.
59.
In 2016, Ben Sasse was the only senator from either party to vote against the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, which was intended to address abuse of heroin and opioid drugs by providing funds to the states for treatment and prevention programs and by making the anti-overdose drug naloxone more widely available to first responders and law enforcement agencies.
60.
Ben Sasse said he was "distressed by opioid abuse" but questioned whether drug treatment should be addressed at the federal level.
61.
Ben Sasse identifies this as the time when he and his wife first began to embrace the "reformed faith".
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Ben Sasse later became an elder in the United Reformed Churches in North America and served on the board of trustees for Westminster Seminary California.
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Ben Sasse is a member of Grace Church, a Presbyterian Church in America congregation in Fremont.