GOP senator calls for ‘adult’ third-party candidate

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) is calling for a third-party presidential candidate to emerge, saying there is no reason to believe that either of the two national front-runners “believe in limiting anything about DC’s power.”

{mosads}The conservative senator late Wednesday issued the call in a letter on Facebook to “the majority of Americans” who wonder why the U.S. “can’t find a healthy leader who can take us forward together.”

“With Clinton and Trump, the fix is in. Heads, they win; tails, you lose. Why are we confined to these two terrible options? This is America. If both choices stink, we reject them and go bigger,” Sasse wrote.

“Why shouldn’t America draft an honest leader who will focus on 70% solutions for the next four years? You know…an adult?” Sasse added.

Sasse envisions a candidate who hasn’t spent their life in politics, “either buying politicians or being bought.” He also wants a candidate to serve for only one term “as a care-taker problem-solver for this messy moment.”

Sasse, the father of three kids, indicated he’s not interested in being that candidate himself, arguing for someone who can campaign around the clock through November.

“Although I’m one of the most conservative members of the Senate, I’m not interested in an ideological purity test, because even a genuine consensus candidate would almost certainly be more conservative than either of the two dishonest liberals now leading the two national parties,” he added.

Sasse is one of few leading Republicans who have indicated that they will never support Donald Trump as the GOP nominee and signaled in February that if Trump becomes the presumptive standard-bearer, as the businessman has this week, he’d look for a third-party alternative.

“I don’t think this guy has any more core principles than a Kardashian marriage,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC in March. “Do any of you think Donald Trump has any core values? I don’t think it’s conceivable.”

Trump locked up his path to the GOP nomination this week, with rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich leaving the race. The developments have left some Republicans in a bind over whom they’ll support after a bitter primary.

—This report was updated at 7:21 a.m.