GOP Secretary of State Who Spoke Out Against Election Denial Wins JFK Profile in Courage Award

Kentucky’s Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams, who worked to expand early voting in the Bluegrass State and spoke out against voter denial in his own party, was chosen to receive the John F. Kennedy This year’s Profile in Courage Award.

In its Monday announcement, the JFK Library Foundation said Adams was recognized “for expanding voting rights and defending free and fair elections despite partisan opposition and death threats from election deniers.”

Adams — whose main political goal is to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat — has been at the forefront of a bipartisan effort with the Democratic governor. Andy Beshear which led to the promulgation of 2021 legislation allowing three days of early, no-excuse in-person voting — including Saturday — before Election Day. Adams hailed it as Kentucky’s most significant election law update in more than a century. About a fifth of Kentuckians who voted in last year’s state election did so during those three days of early in-person voting, Adams’ office said Monday.

As his state’s top elections official, Adams vigorously rejected false claims about fraudulent elections, calling election skeptics “eccentrics and crazy people.”

“There’s a lot of irresponsible talk and demagogy about us hacking the election,” Adams said in a 2022 interview with Spectrum News 1. “It’s all bullshit. Our elections have never been hacked and are not hacked now.”

First elected in 2019, Adams was re-elected by a wide margin last year after dominating his party’s primarieswhich included a challenger who promoted debunked election claims.

Adams, a Kentucky native and Harvard Law School graduate, said Monday that Kennedy’s “admonition to put country before self still resonates today and rings true now more than ever.”

“I am honored to accept this award on behalf of poll workers and poll workers across America who, inspired by its call, sacrifice to keep the American experience of self-government alive,” he added.

Adams is part of an effort initiated after the last presidential elections that seek to bring together Republican officials willing to defend the country’s electoral systems and the people who run them. They want authorities to reinforce the message that the elections are safe and accurate, which they consider especially important as the country heads into another divisive presidential contest in November.

“It’s an obligation on the part of Republicans to stand up and defend our system because our party — there is some blame for our position right now,” Adams said recently. “But it’s also strategically wise for Republicans to say, ‘Hey, Republicans, you can trust this. Don’t stay at home.’”

During a recent campaign rally, former President Donald Trump – the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year – repeated his false claim that Democrats rigged the 2020 election.

Just 22% of Republicans expressed high confidence that votes will be counted accurately in November, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last year.

Adams is seen as a potential candidate for governor in 2027, when he and Beshear will be term-limited in their current positions.

Honorary President of the JFK Library Foundation Caroline Kennedy and his son, Jack Schlossberg, will present the award to Adams on June 9 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

President Kennedy’s book, “Profiles in Courage,” tells the stories of eight U.S. senators who risked their careers by taking principled stands for unpopular positions. Previous winners of the Profile in Courage Award include former US Presidents Gerald Ford, George HW Bush and Barack Obama.