In case you haven't heard by now, Senator Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, is stepping down to become the president of the University of Florida.
For a while now, people have been wondering who would replace him.
We have an answer:
Pete Ricketts, who was the governor of Nebraska from 2015 to 2023.
Governor Jim Pillen, a Republican, said that he wasn't interested in picking an interim or a placeholder. He wanted somebody who could get to work right away. That's why Ricketts is the man for the job:
"I don’t believe in placeholders. My job was to find the best person to represent us, and the process for me has been really, really important," Pillen said in a press conference announcing his choice. “We took this process incredibly seriously. The criteria for me were really, really simple. The appointee needs to represent us as a people."
It was an exceptionally big move by Pillen, considering he had just taken office. Ricketts had unsuccessfully ran for Senate in 2006, and just last month announced he would be applying for Sasse's unexpired term.
Ricketts will be in office at least until 2024, when he will face a special election to see if he completes the last two years of the term. Sasse's tenure was originally set to expire in January 2027.
Instead, Sasse is returning to academia, saying that the University of Florida "is the most important institution in the nation's most economically dynamic state. Washington partisanship isn't going to solve these workforce challenges — new institutions and entrepreneurial communities are going to have to spearhead this work."
To read more about this story, click on the source here.
