Ben Sasse, one of seven Republicans who voted to convict Trump, to resign from the Senate

Nebraska lawmaker was simultaneously a critic of the former president but also someone who frequently voted with him

Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, one of seven Republican Senators who voted to convict Donald Trump for his role in the January 6 riot, announced he would resign from the Senate to serve as president of the University of Florida.

The University of Florida, which is based in Gainesville, announced him as the sole finalist for its position as president.

“It’s the most important institution in the nation’s most economically dynamic state — and its board, faculty and graduates are uniquely positioned to lead this country through an era of disruption,” he said. “The caliber of teaching and research at UF is unmistakable, carried out through the core principles of shared governance and academic freedom. I’m thrilled about the opportunity to work alongside one of the nation’s most outstanding faculties.”

Mr Sasse previously served as president of Midland University in Fremont, Nebraska before he ran for an open seat in 2014. He won his reelection in 2020 with 62.74 per cent of the vote.

In the 2016 campaign Mr Sasse became the first Republican Senator to say that he would not vote for Mr Trump in the general election that year, which earned the then-president’s ire.

“Mr Trump’s relentless focus is on dividing Americans, and on tearing down rather than building back up this glorious nation,” he said back in 2016. “Much like President Obama, he displays essentially no understanding of the fact that, in the American system, we have a constitutional system of checks and balances, with three separate but co-equal branches of government.”

Still, once Mr Trump won the election, Mr Sasse largely faded into the background, avoiding hallway interviews. He also voted largely with Mr Trump, voting to confirm all three of his Supreme Court nominees as well as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017.

In 2020, he voted against convicting the former president in his first impeachment trial but did vote to convict him in his second impeachment.

“The president repeated these lies when summoning his crowd — parts of which were widely known to be violent — to Capitol Hill to intimidate Vice President Pence and Congress into not fulfilling our constitutional duties,” he said at the time. “Those lies had consequences, endangering the life of the vice president and bringing us dangerously close to a bloody constitutional crisis. Each of these actions are violations of a president’s oath of office.”

In response, Republicans in Nebraska nearly censured him but only criticised him.

Mr Sasse’s exit, combined with the retirements of Senators Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania and Richard Burr of North Carolina, leaves only four Republicans who voted to convict Mr Trump in the Senate: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.