# Ben Sasse Former U.S. Senator from Nebraska (2015–2023). Academic by background — Yale Ph.D. in American history; president of Midland University before his Senate run. One of the most vocal Republican Trump critics during the 2016 primary cycle ("if our party is no longer working for the things we tell our kids we believe, then people of good conscience should stop pretending they're running for office for the same thing"). Frequently floated as a potential post-Trump GOP standard-bearer who never materialized. ## The second impeachment One of seven Republican senators to vote guilty at the [[Trump Second Impeachment]] trial (February 13, 2021). Faced an immediate censure resolution from the Nebraska Republican Party. ## Departure from the Senate Resigned the Senate seat in January 2023 to become the 13th president of the University of Florida — a position offered to him after a closed-door search process that ranked him as sole finalist. The UF presidency proved short and contentious: Sasse resigned in July 2024 amid a state audit of his hiring and contracting decisions and a faculty-trust crisis. ## KB significance Sasse is the case where the rhetoric of post-Trump Republican opposition outran the political infrastructure to sustain it. His Senate exit (voluntary, to a flagship-university presidency) was the most attractive off-ramp available to any of the seven 2nd-impeachment guilty voters. The trajectory tracks the broader pattern in [[Trump Impeachments Timeline]]: Republicans who broke with Trump rarely sustained an alternative political career within the GOP. ## Related - [[Trump Second Impeachment]] - [[Trump Impeachments Timeline]]