The JFK Library Foundation is honoring former vice president Mike Pence with an award for certifying the 2020 election despite threats to his life.
The previous right-hand man to President Donald Trump will receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for putting his life and career on the line to validate the election that Trump contested.
Pence was alienated by Trump and the Republican Party for standing firm in his refusal to overturn the 2020 election, even after the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection where several MAGA members sought to reposition Trump as leader. Five people died during the attack.
On Thursday, the JFK Library Foundation, which is a nonprofit partner to the JFK Library, announced that the award honors the sacrifices Pence made “to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power.”
Pence didn’t budge in his allegiance to democracy despite “extraordinary pressure to single-handedly” overturn the election results. He even resisted when the aggressive mob of Trump supporters forced their way into the U.S. Capitol and threatened him.
The Secret Service had urged Pence to evacuate, but he refused. He remained at the Capitol until it was cleared of all insurrectionists and then resumed the certification process to confirm the election results.
The annual ceremony celebrates “public servants for making a courageous decision of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences.”
The award will be presented May 4 by Caroline Kennedy and Jack Schlossberg, the last living grandson of Kennedy himself. Previous recipients include former U.S. Presidents Barack Obama, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush; Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; and more.
Pence said he was “deeply humbled” and “honored” to be the recipient and has been inspired by Kennedy since his youth.
Kennedy and Schlossberg released a joint statement saying that political courage “is not outdated” in the United States.
“Despite our political differences, it is hard to imagine an act of greater consequence than Vice President Pence’s decision to certify the 2020 presidential election during an attack on the U.S. Capitol,” the statement read.
The two also added that Pence’s actions exemplify Kennedy’s belief that political courage can “change the course of history.”
The move comes only weeks after Trump attacked the Kennedy Center by ousting the institution’s leadership and claiming he had been unanimously elected as the board’s chair.
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced at the time that Trump wanted to rebuild the center.
“The Kennedy Center learned the hard way that if you go woke, you will go broke,” she said.
