Kentucky Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams, who worked to expand early voting in the Bluegrass State and has spoken out against election denialism in his own party, has been chosen to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this year.
In its announcement Monday, the JFK Library Foundation said Adams was recognized “for expanding voting rights and standing up for free and fair elections despite party opposition and death threats from election deniers.”
MICHIGAN GOV. WHITMER TO RECEIVE JFK ‘PROFILE IN COURAGE’ AWARD DESPITE RECENT COVID-19 SURGE
Adams — whose signature policy objective is to make it easy to vote and hard to cheat — was at the forefront of a bipartisan effort with Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear that led to the enactment of 2021 legislation allowing for three days of no-excuse, early in-person voting — including on a Saturday — before Election Day. Adams hailed it as Kentucky’s most significant election law update in more than a century. About one-fifth of the Kentuckians who voted in last year’s statewide election did so during those three days of early, in-person voting, Adams’ office said Monday.
Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams speaks in the Rotunda of the state Capitol, Jan. 2, 2024, in Frankfort, Ky. Adams, who worked to expand early voting in the Bluegrass State and has spoken out against election denialism in his own party, was chosen on Monday, May 6, to receive the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award this year. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
As his state’s chief election officer, Adams has pushed back forcefully against false claims about rigged elections, referring to election skeptics as “cranks and kooks.”
“There’s a lot of irresponsible chatter out there and demagoguery about us having hacked elections,” Adams said in a 2022 interview on Spectrum News 1. “It’s all hogwash. Our elections have never been hacked and are not hacked now.”
First elected in 2019, Adams won reelection by a wide…
