Former Vice President Mike Pence will be given the 2025 John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for certifying the 2020 election results after rioters rampaged through the U.S. Capitol, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation revealed on Thursday.
Then-vice president to President Donald Trump during his first term, Pence certified former President Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 election despite Trump pressuring him to toss out the results during the certification on January 6, 2021 as Trump supporters laid siege to the Capitol.
The daughter of President Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, and her son, Jack Schlossberg, said in a statement announcing the foundation’s decision that Pence’s actions were “an example of President Kennedy’s belief that an act of political courage can change the course of history.”
Pence is set to receive the award from Kennedy and Schlossberg at the Kennedy Library in Boston on May 4.
“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,” said mother and son. “Upholding his oath to the Constitution and following his conscience, the Vice President put his life, career, and political future on the line.”
Rioters that day chanted: “Hang Mike Pence,” and a noose hung from a makeshift scaffold outside the Capitol.
In the press release, Pence said he was “deeply humbled and honored.”
“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,” he added.
The Kennedys also said in the statement that “political courage is not outdated in the United States.”
“At every level of government, leaders are putting country first, and not backing down,” they added.
The Kennedys said Pence’s “decision is an example of President Kennedy’s belief that an act of political courage can change the course of history.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence attends the Inauguration of Donald Trump in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 2025. He’s this year’s recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award (Getty Images)
The award comes as Pence’s former boss works to bend academic institutions and foreign governments to his will through tariffs and withdrawals of government funding, in addition to other measures.
Pence slammed Trump’s tariffs in a post on X on Wednesday, writing: “The Trump Tariff Tax is the largest peacetime tax hike in U.S. history. These Tariffs are nearly 10x the size of those imposed during the Trump-Pence Administration and will cost American families over $3,500 per year.”
The Kennedy Profile in Courage award has been presented each year since 1989 to “public servants who have made courageous decisions of conscience without regard for the personal or professional consequences.”
In 2024, the award was given to the Republican Secretary of State of Kentucky, Michael Adams, for “expanding voting rights and standing up for free and fair elections despite party opposition.”
Pence has faced ostracism by Trump and the rest of the Republican Party after refusing to adhere to Trump’s demands to toss out the 2020 election, which Trump lost.
