Zelensky, Liz Cheney among recipients of JFK Profile in Courage Award

The John F. Kennedy Library Foundation will, for the first time ever, honor 5 individuals with the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this year, including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, The Washington Post reports.

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D), Arizona House Speaker Russell "Rusty" Bowers (R), and Wandrea "Shaye" Moss, who works for the Fulton Country election department in Georgia, will also receive the award.

"These honorees have placed their careers and lives on the line to protect democratic principles and free and fair elections," the foundation said. "They embody what President Kennedy admired most in others — political courage."

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The group applauded Zelensky's "principled leadership," which has "strengthened the resolve of Ukrainians and people around the globe to protect and defend the fragile human right of self-determination." Ukraine is currently fending off an unprompted invasion at the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The foundation also praised Cheney, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump and member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, for refusing "to take the politically expedient course that most of her party embraced."

Cheney has repeatedly spoken out against the former president and his grip on the GOP, even at the expense of her political standing among colleagues. A Trump-backed challenger is running against her in Wyoming's upcoming Republican primary.

In a statement, Cheney said she was "grateful" for the "tremendous honor" of the Profile in Courage Award, and called on Americans to help defend democracy.

"If we do not stand for truth, the rule of law, and our Constitution," Cheney said, "if we set aside our founding principles for the politics of the moment, the miracle of our constitutional republic will slip away."