Former Vice President Pence will receive the “2025 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award” for his role in certifying the 2020 presidential election despite facing grave personal and political risk.
The JFK Library Foundation, which presents the honor each year, announced on Thursday the 2025 award will go to Pence “for putting his life and career on the line to ensure the constitutional transfer of presidential power on January 6, 2021.”
Caroline Kennedy and Jack Schlossberg — the late president’s daughter and grandson, respectively — will present Pence with the award at the JFK Library and Museum in Boston, Mass., on May 4, 2025.
Kennedy and Schlossberg, who both sit on the bipartisan committee that selects the award’s recipients, issued a joint statement praising Pence for “putting country first, and not backing down.”
“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,” they wrote in the statement. “Upholding his oath to the Constitution and following his conscience, the Vice President put his life, career, and political future on the line.”
“His decision is an example of President Kennedy’s belief that an act of political courage can change the course of history,” they added.
In the aftermath of President Trump’s 2020 election loss, Pence faced pressure to use his ceremonial role in counting the certified electoral votes as vice president to overturn the results of the election. Pence refused, noting he did not have the authority to do so, and he was targeted by Trump supporters, some of whom built a makeshift gallows at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and called for his hanging.
Pence said in a statement he is honored to receive the award.
“I am deeply humbled and honored to be the recipient of the Kennedy Profile in Courage Award,” Pence said in a statement. “I have been inspired by the life and words of President John F. Kennedy since my youth and am honored to join the company of so many distinguished Americans who have received this recognition in the past.”
The award has been granted in recent years to public figures including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams (S), South Carolina state senators, and leaders of South Korea and Japan, among others.
The award is named for the late president’s 1957 Pulitzer-Prize winning book, “Profiles in Courage,” which highlights eight senators “who risked their careers, incurring the wrath of constituents or powerful interest groups, by taking principled stands for unpopular positions.”