Former Republican Sen. Ben Sasse announced Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with terminal, stage-four pancreatic cancer.

Ben Sasse, 53, shared the news in a post on X, calling the diagnosis a "death sentence."

"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," Ben Sasse wrote.

Ben Sasse represented Nebraska in the U.S. Senate from 2015 until 2023, when he resigned to become president of the University of Florida.

"This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad," he said.

Sasse and his wife have three children.

"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," Sasse wrote of his wife.

He shared that his daughter Corrie Sasse was commissioned into the U.S. Air Force seven months ago and is now progressing through advanced instrument and multi-engine flight training, while his daughter Alex Sasse graduated from college last week a semester early. Over the summer, his 14-year-old son Breck Sasse began officially learning how to drive.

"I couldn't be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints," he said in the post.

Ben Sasse also reflected on his Christian faith, noting the timing of the diagnosis during the Advent season.

"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," he wrote. "As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what's to come."

During his Senate tenure, Ben Sasse was a conservative lawmaker who often aligned with the Trump administration on policy but at times was critical of President Donald Trump.

He voted "guilty" in Trump's second impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol Building, joining six other Republican senators. The vote did not reach the two-thirds majority required for conviction.

A Nebraska native, Ben Sasse is the son of a high school teacher and football coach. He earned a bachelor's degree in government from Harvard University, studied at Oxford University and St. John's College, and received a Ph.D. in history from Yale University.

Ben Sasse closed his lengthy social media post by saying that he's "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," he wrote. "Death and dying aren't the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived."

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