Today’s Host: Duane Krause
Senator Ben Sasse was born in Plainview, NE. He graduated from high school in 1990 from Fremont Senior High School and was recruited to wrestle for Harvard University, where he earned his Bachelors in Government in 1994. Ben subsequently earned his PhD in American History from Yale University in 2004. Senator Sasse’s PhD dissertation won numerous awards for best dissertation and best history dissertation.
From early 2004 until 2010 he served in a variety of consulting and advisory positions, for both private governmental agencies, (Boston Consulting Group, Department of Homeland Security) while maintaining a professorship at the University of Texas in Austin. In July 2007, Ben was nominated by President George W. Bush to the post of Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He was confirmed in December 2007 and served until the end of the Bush Administration in January 2009. In late 2009 Mr. Sasse rejoined the University of Texas as a fellow LBJ School of Public Affairs, where he served until being appointed as President to Midland University. At age 37 he was one of the youngest college presidents in America. He served Midland University for 5 years, and then overwhelmingly elected to the U.S. Senate in 2014.
Sasse is the son of Fremont resident Linda K. (Dunklau) Shepard and Gary Sasse. He is married to Melissa and the parents of three children: Elizabeth, Alexandra, Breck.