Former GOP Sen. Ben Sasse—who gained recognition for breaking with his party to criticize former President Donald Trump and voted to convict Trump during his second impeachment trial—announced on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.

“This is a hard message to write, but since many of you have started to suspect something’s off, I’ll get straight to the point: Last week I received a diagnosis of metastatic Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and I will die,” Sasse said in a post on X.

“I’ll share more details later,” he added. “I’m not going to give up without a fight.”

Pancreatic cancer, though not common, is the third deadliest form of cancer, according to the . Often, the disease is only detected after it has spread to other parts of the body.

Sasse, who represented Nebraska in the Senate from 2015 to 2023, stated he felt “blessed” to be surrounded by loving friends and family during this time. He drew on his Christian faith and quoted Scripture in his post.

The 53-year-old was one of only who split from their party to vote for Trump’s conviction in his impeachment trial following the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. While in office, Sasse publicly criticized Trump—including over his response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his treatment of women. At one point, Sasse accused the President of “kiss[ing] dictators’ butts.” He also expressed regret over the direction the Republican Party was taking.

“The violence Americans witnessed—and that could repeat in the coming days—is not a protest gone wrong or the work of ‘a few bad apples.’ It is the growth of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been fed by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice,” he wrote in a piece for just over a week after the 2021 Capitol attack. “When Trump leaves office, my party faces a choice: We can dedicate ourselves to defending the Constitution and preserving our nation’s best institutions and traditions, or we can become a party of conspiracy theories, cable-news fantasies, and the ruin that comes with them.”

In 2023, Sasse resigned from the Senate to take the position of president at the University of Florida. In his , he called his time in the Senate “a unique honor.” He also criticized extremism on both sides of the political spectrum. “The Senate has a special role to play in America’s recovery,” he said, noting that “this institution doesn’t function very well right now.”

He stepped down from his role at the University of Florida in 2024 to spend more time with his family, after his wife Melissa was diagnosed with epilepsy.

The couple has three children together, whom Sasse mentioned in his Tuesday post. His daughter Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force several months ago, and his daughter Alex graduated college last week—one semester early, he shared. His teenage son Breck started learning to drive this past summer.

“I have less time left than I’d prefer,” Sasse said. “This is tough for someone wired to work and build, but even harder as a husband and dad. I can’t begin to describe how wonderful my family is.”

“There’s no perfect time to tell your loved ones you’re now living on a shorter timeline—but the Advent season isn’t the worst,” he continued. “As a Christian, the weeks leading up to Christmas are a time to turn our hearts toward the hope of what’s ahead.”