Sasse grew up in Fremont, near Omaha, Nebraska, where he excelled in high school. He went on to study at Harvard University (B.A., 1994), St. John’s College (M.A., 1998), and the University of Oxford. In the mid-1990s he married, and he and his wife, Melissa, later had three children. Sasse also attended Yale University, where he earned a Ph.D. in history in 2004. In 2014 Sasse entered the U.S. Senate race, running on a broadly conservative ticket that focused on opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and on entitlement reform, notably raising the retirement age to reflect increasing life expectancies. Sasse easily defeated his Democratic opponent and took office in 2015. During the presidential election the following year, he was harshly critical of Republican nominee—and eventual winner—Donald Trump. In 2017 Sasse published the book The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis—and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance.