Both the U.S. Senate as well as observers of and activists in Nebraska's Republican Party were left speechless Thursday night by reports that Republican Sen. Ben Sasse would soon resign from office.
According to several reports from the Cornhusker State, sources close to Sasse say he will leave office with more than four years left of his second term to become president of the University of Florida.
Best known nationwide as one of seven Republican senators to vote for former President Donald Trump's impeachment in 2021, Sasse, 50, had voiced his concern about Trump's charges of fraud in the 2020 election and that he had brought the nation "dangerously close to a bloody constitutional crisis."
In February of last year, the Lincoln County Republican Committee censured him for his vote, and talk of a prospective primary challenge of Sasse retiring when his second term is up has been ongoing.
Earlier this week, Sasse revealed to an interviewer on KFAB-Radio in Nebraska that he was in discussion with the University of Florida about assuming its helm.
Under Nebraska law, Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts will appoint a replacement for Sasse when his resignation becomes official. Whoever he names will serve until a special election for the remaining two years of the term is held in 2024.
Ricketts, 58, has just over two months left to his term before leaving office. Considered highly ambitious, he could appoint a stopgap senator who would only serve the remainder of Sasse's term and thus pave the way for Ricketts himself to run in 2026.
A Harvard graduate with a Ph.D. from Yale, Sasse was a close associate of Mitt Romney during his 2012 presidential campaign and would have overseen the transition had Romney won. At 37, he became president of Midland Lutheran College and transformed the small, near-bankrupt institution into a thriving university.
His animosity toward Trump notwithstanding, Sasse voted with the former president 84.8% of the time and has a lifetime American Conservative Union rating of 94%.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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