As of this past Sunday, Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) has chosen to officially resign from his seat in the Senate in the wake of reports breaking late last year that the congressman was possibly thinking about going after higher education opportunities.
Sasse, who has held the role of senator for the state of Nebraska since back in 2015, officially resigned in the wake of taking a position to be the president of the University of Florida, for which he will reportedly be issued a salary of roughly $1 million.
The Republican politician issued his final speech on the Senate floor this past week, stating that he did not intend to spend the rest of his life working in Washington after close to eight years in the role of a public servant.
“That’s not what our founders envisioned for the people they would send to the federal city,” stated Sasse. “They envisioned, rather, congressmen, senators, and presidents who thought of D.C. as a temporary stay.”
“Washington is a place to do a good bit of neighbor-loving work, but then to go back home to the more permanent work of life and flesh and blood whole communities,” he went on.
Sasse chose to vote alongside a group of six other Republican senators to try and convict President Donald trump due to the U.S. Capitol riot that took place on January 6, 2021.
Trump labeled the senator from Nebraska “Little ben Sasse” while attending a rally in May in the congressman’s home state, claiming that Sasse ended up being a “grandstanding, little-respected senator.”
While issuing his farewell speech, Sasse highlighted that his overall relationship with Nebraskans had some very “marked ups and downs” throughout the past eight years, making him “the most censured public official in the history of Nebraska.”
“Many times, it felt like a noogie and a slap and a head butt and a hug all at once,” he stated.
Directly after the news came to light about Sasse’s upcoming retirement, the senator revealed that he would take up the mantle of the next president for the University of Florida.
Officials for the university stated in a release that it had spent many months looking over a few hundred different applicants for the role and that the 15-member presidential search committee for the school “unanimously recommended United States Senator Dr. Ben Sasse as the sole finalist.”
Pete Ricketts, the former Republican Governor of Nebraska, announced just last month that he still wants to look for his successor’s appointment to become the state’s next U.S. Senator to replace Sasse.
“For me, it came down to a single question: How can I best serve the people of Nebraska and advance our conservative values?” explained Ricketts via a statement to The Hill. “In Congress, we’re in a fight for the future of our nation, and it’s a fight we have to win. We must cut taxes, strengthen public safety and our national security, and protect our most sacred freedoms.”
“Over the last eight years, we’ve shown the world the real impact conservative leadership can have,” he concluded. “I want to continue delivering results for our state, fighting to reduce taxes, grow our economy, defend our liberties, and run government more like a business. I’ll never stop working to get the job done, and that’s why I’m asking for Governor-elect [Jim] Pillen’s consideration.”
