October is a month that just won’t quit, and another piece of big news dropped on Thursday. According to KFAB, a local news station in Nebraska, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse is set to announce he is resigning from the US Senate.
According to the report, Sasse could make things official as soon as Thursday with a schedule to leave office in December.
I want to be clear here: this is a process that will take time, so the resignation will not take effect today. The process will be announced today, and I am told to expect the resignation to actually be made official in December.
— Ian M. Swanson (@IanMSwanson) October 6, 2022
Sasse is reportedly leaving his position in Washington to take a role in higher education. I would presume he’s going to become the president of a major university as any lesser role probably wouldn’t have led to this result. Given that Sasse went to Yale, there might also be an opportunity for him in the Ivy League, though that seems less likely given the liberal bias at those institutions.
Could you imagine the rabid protests from students if he were to take a position at Harvard, for example? Sasse is a big Nebraska fan regarding football, so maybe that offers a clue.
As to his replacement, the GOP governor of the state gets to name a replacement, and there’s no reason to think it won’t be conservative Republican. Sasse himself has had a colorful relationship with the broader right, both as a critic of Donald Trump and also as someone with more neoconservative views. Because of that, some will no doubt cheer his departure.
To offer a personal observation, Sasse has appeared disinterested in the US Senate for the last several years. He seemed more excited about pushing his recent book than governing, so his exodus isn’t surprising. Perhaps it’s for the best.
