The 2022 midterm elections are less than a month away. And while the focus will be on the winners and losers, perhaps the more important story will be about the lawmakers who dodged the ballot entirely.
Already this cycle, we’ve seen a remarkable number of retirements. Republican Senators Roy Blunt (Missouri), Rob Portman (Ohio), Richard Burr (North Carolina), and Pat Toomey (Pennsylvania) have all announced they will not seek reelection. Those familiar with the Senate will recognize these as some of its more bipartisan members.
Earlier this month, another senator joined them: Ben Sasse from Nebraska. Yet his move is more provocative: he has four years left in his six-year term.
From a state as deep red as Nebraska, Sasse could have played the long game in Senate politics: hold onto his seat until he commanded chairmanships on powerful committees, allowing him to benefit his home state and more easily guarantee reelection. But to succeed with this strategy, one must avoid rocking the proverbial boat.
The problem was that, when it came to the most polarizing figure in Republican politics, Senator Sasse simply would not go along to get along. Elected in 2014, he was in office for just two years before he began openly criticizing presidential candidate Donald Trump. He earned his first rebuke from the Nebraska GOP in 2016 for suggesting he would vote third-party in a race between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
During President Trump’s first impeachment, congressional insiders worried that Sasse would flip and vote to convict the president for his questionable negotiations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This wavering enraged many in Nebraska, and during his first reelection campaign, Sasse drew a primary challenger who bragged about his fealty to Trump.
Amid the chaos of January 6, Sasse minced no words. He blamed Trump for sowing the seeds of division that erupted into a deadly riot. He voted to convict Trump in the president’s second impeachment trial. This earned him his second rebuke from the state party.
Sasse first ran as a typical Republican with a few libertarian quirks, something he could afford in a red state pre-2016. But for a political newcomer, receiving multiple censures from the state party and watching the national party bend the knee to Trump must have been as disorienting as it is disheartening.
Compounding the offense is that most pundits now think Senate Republicans will remain in the minority. And even if they do emerge triumphant, Sasse’s penchant for following his conscience means he will have diminished influence in a party that doesn’t want or appreciate his ideals.
So it is that Sasse is leaving the upper chamber to pursue the presidency — of the University of Florida. The move isn’t as bizarre as it might appear.
Before serving in the Senate, Sasse was the president of Midland Lutheran College, a private liberal arts school in Nebraska, which enjoyed a revival while he was at the helm. He worked at UT-Austin as both an administrator and part-time professor. He also earned a fellowship at UT-Austin’s esteemed Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs Center for Politics and Governance. He has a degree in government from Harvard, a couple of master’s degrees, and a Ph.D. in history from Yale.
After eight years in the Senate, Sasse clearly wants to do something productive. And with his academic background, it’s obvious he sees the value in nurturing the next generation of thinkers. That is, if they’ll let him.
Upon arriving at the University of Florida for town hall-style meetings with the board, faculty, and students, Sasse was greeted by hundreds of protesters. Students objected to Sasse’s political affiliation as a conservative and to the selection process that led to his being selected as the sole finalist for the position.
Sasse attempted to emphasize the consensus-building aspects of the job, but unfortunately the students took control of the room and the rest of the discussion had to be held remotely from an undisclosed location.
The knee-jerk response to Sasse is curious because he embodies the “good conservative” archetype that is opportunistically lauded in the media. He also made bold stands against Trump, who is detested on college campuses. But his mere affiliation with the GOP was enough to disqualify him in the minds of students. It’s hard to imagine who on the center-right could ever rise to their standards.
It’s a shame that politics will follow Sasse back to academe. He’s clearly looking for a well-deserved break from the polarization he’s worked to oppose. As a champion for academic freedom and the liberal arts, he might yet do inspiring things at the University of Florida. And as the students demonstrated by exercising their heckler’s veto, he might not be the university president they want — but he’s definitely the university president they need.
