Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, has faced scrutiny from students over past remarks opposing LGBTQ+ rights after the university announced last week that he was the sole finalist to become the college’s next president.
He visited the campus on Monday for a forum, where he was expected to meet with students. However, he was instead met with a large demonstration of students demanding he decline the position. They also expressed frustration over what they viewed as a lack of transparency over the university’s selection process, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
Videos of the protest spread across social media on Monday. Students were seen carrying signs and Pride flags while chanting “Hey hey. Ho ho. Ben Sasse has got to go.”
Protesters also chanted “Get the f**k out of our swamp,” according to University of Florida journalism student Alan Halaly on Twitter.
During the forum, Sasse was pressed on his past statements about LGBTQ+ rights. Sasse, first elected to the Senate in 2014, has opposed same-sex marriage in the past, describing the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which in 2015 legalized same-sex marriage across the United States, as a “disappointment.”
“Today’s ruling is a disappointment to Nebraskans who understand that marriage brings a wife and husband together so their children can have a mom and dad,” he wrote in a statement at the time. “The Supreme Court once again overstepped its Constitutional role by acting as a super-legislature and imposing its own definition of marriage on the American people rather than allowing voters to decide in the states.”
On Monday, Sasse acknowledged that Obergefell is the law of the land during his discussion and said he believes “deeply in the immeasurable worth and dignity of every single person,” Halaly reported. Still, the Republican senator has not co-sponsored legislation such as the Equality Act, which would provide protections for the LGBTQ+ community against discrimination, and has a “zero” score from the Human Rights Campaign.
The protest forced an employee discussion with Sasse to be moved online, according to the Tampa Bay Times. The senator said he would also meet with an on-campus LGBTQ+ advocacy group to learn about how to create an inclusive campus environment.
In addition to his time as a senator, Sasse worked as a professor at Yale University and the University of Texas at Austin. He also served as the president of Midland University, a small Christian school in Fremont, Nebraska.
Sasse Appointment Would Leave Open Senate Seat
If Sasse accepts the position at the University of Florida, he would be vacating his Senate seat in safely Republican Nebraska—leaving the appointment up to Governor Pete Ricketts, who will retire at the end of the year due to term limits. Whoever he appoints would run to fill the remainder of Sasse’s seat in a special election, not the 2022 midterms.
Sasse was easily reelected in 2020, winning nearly 63 percent of the vote and later became one of seven Republican senators who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump. He also voted to establish a bipartisan committee investigating last year’s insurrection when a mob of Trump supporters violently protested the 2020 election results at the U.S. Capitol building.
Newsweek reached out to the University of Florida for comment.
