Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi receives the Roosevelt Leadership Award  

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On Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, just miles from Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, the Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange and the Ripon Society, honored Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, with the 2023 Roosevelt Leadership Award.

The honor is presented in the spirit of America’s 26th President, Theodore Roosevelt, and intended to recognize leaders who today embody some of the same qualities and characteristics that President Roosevelt displayed throughout his life and career, a press release from Krishnamoorthi’s office said..

The award recognizes leaders, “Who have a sense of duty and service driven by a love of country. Who possess a desire to do what is in the best interests of the American people – regardless of party, and regardless of who gets the credit.”

It also recognizes those “who embody the qualities that Theodore Roosevelt spoke of when he said: ‘The credit belongs to those who are actually in the arena, who strive valiantly; who know the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spend themselves in a worthy cause; who at best know the triumph of high achievement; and who, at worst, if they fail, fail while daring greatly, so that their place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.’”

U.S. Representatives. Joyce Beatty, D-Ohio, Adrian Smith, R-Nebraska, and Kelly Armstrong, R-North Dakota, were also honored with the Roosevelt Award during the ceremony.

“I’m grateful to the Franklin Center and the Ripon Society for this honor as well as their continuing commitment toward working to bring members of both parties together to overcome the challenges facing our nation,” Congressman Krishnamoorthi is quoted saying. “Our country has always had its divisions, but we are all united by our shared values as Americans, and it remains as true today as it has been throughout our history, that the only way to achieve enduring progress is to work together.”

The Franklin Center brings together Members of the U.S. Congress and their international parliamentary counterparts as well as experts from the Diplomatic corps, foreign officials, senior private sector representatives, scholars, and other public policy experts. Through regular conferences and events where leading international opinion leaders share ideas, the Franklin Center promotes enlightened, balanced, and unbiased international policy discussion on major international issues.

The Ripon Society is a public policy organization that was founded in 1962 and takes its name from the town where the Republican Party was born in 1854 – Ripon, Wisconsin.

The Franklin Center for Global Policy Exchange is a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization committed to enhancing global understanding of important international issues.