Duckworth Receives Statesmanship Award for Prioritizing Bipartisan Work over Party Politics
[WASHINGTON, DC] – Last night, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) was honored by the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress for her continued commitment to working across the aisle to achieve the best results possible for her constituents and for all Americans, despite political affiliation. Duckworth received the Statesmanship Award alongside Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK), with whom she has partnered with on numerous initiatives, including travelling together in 2021 to help announce the shipment of desperately needed vaccines for the people of Taiwan. At last night’s event, the Senator spoke of the critical importance of caring more about what American families need than the praise or criticism one might get from one’s political base or cable news.
Key quotes:
“[When Dan and I decided to partner with each other in 2021], we didn’t consider whether working together would hurt us in the polls… We didn’t think in terms of red or blue. We thought in terms of right and wrong.?What we focused on was using our position to help both the folks in Taiwan and folks back home… and along the way, we realized that we genuinely liked each other. That we actually got along.”
“Look, it’s an election year. Dan and I aren’t going to agree on everything… [But to me, what really] matters is that when I have an issue I care deeply about, I know I can talk to him not as a Democrat to a Republican, but as one Veteran to another. Or as one parent to another. Or simply as one Senator who cares deeply for her state to another Senator who cares immensely for his, and about making things better for all of us. Because that’s how things get done. Not through angry quips on Twitter.”
“Centuries ago, our founders set out for us one of the most frustratingly beautiful tasks I could imagine … They asked us to recognize that our Union would never be perfect—then to get over it. And instead, get to work pushing and pulling and tugging on it until it’s a little more perfect than it was the day before.”
“I know that that kind of effort can feel Sisyphean at times. But the good thing is that, unlike Sisyphus himself, we don’t have to do it alone. We have partners—on our own side of the aisle and on the other side, too. Pushing that boulder up the hill, working together to shape our democracy to be the best it can be.”
Full remarks as prepared below:
Hello everyone!
Thank you for having me here tonight, and thank you for this award.
It means the world—especially to be getting it alongside someone I’ve traveled the world with: my colleague and friend Dan Sullivan.
Yes. You heard me right. Even with the “R” after his name, even in these politically fraught times, Dan really is someone I consider a friend.
That’s because despite that the election—oh God help us—is six months away, I’ve found that partisan labels can and must fall away when you focus on what’s truly important:
Caring more about helping families from the cornfields of Illinois to the icefields of Alaska than you do about getting a slap on your back from your base.
I learned a similar lesson in the Army, where thinking about personal differences always fell in a distant second to working as one to complete the mission at hand.
My daily mission no longer involves strapping my bird to my back. Now, as a Senator rather than a Soldier, it involves working closely with folks like Dan, who, in 2021, partnered with me to help deliver hundreds of thousands of COVID vaccines to Taiwan.?
We both recognized that pandemics know no borders—that an outbreak of COVID in the Indo-Pacific wouldn’t just be tragic for that region alone, but could be disastrous for other nations oceans away as well.
So despite the political tenor at home, we didn’t consider whether working together would hurt us in the polls or with our bases.
We didn’t pay attention to the chyrons on cable news.
We didn’t think in terms of red or blue. We thought in terms of right and wrong.?
What we focused on was using our position to help both the folks in Taiwan and folks back home:
Getting the Taiwanese some desperately needed relief from the pandemic and helping fortify Americans’ own health and national security, ensuring that our ties remained strong with a democracy that sits smack-dab in the middle of a major geopolitical hotspot.
And along the way, we realized that we genuinely liked each other. That we actually got along.
By the end of the trip, the two of us had trauma-bonded after getting threatened by the PRC; I’d helped him shop for Korean beauty products as souvenirs for his daughters; and his wife had given me book recommendations for my little girls based on my personal obsession with Alaskan wilderness reality shows.?
Bipartisanship in action.
Look, it’s an election year.
Dan and I aren’t going to agree on everything. Far from it.
We’re gonna be on opposite sides on a whole lotta votes, both in the Senate chamber and come November.
But to me, when it comes down to doing the jobs that we’re so fortunate to have, that’s not what really matters.
What matters is that when I have an issue I care deeply about, I know I can talk to him not as a Democrat to a Republican, but as one Veteran to another.
Or as one parent to another.
Or simply as one Senator who cares deeply for her state to another Senator who cares immensely for his, and about making things better for all of us.
Because that’s how things get done. Not through angry quips on Twitter or jabs over cable news.
Working together because you both believe that what cloakroom you go into shouldn’t affect whether you team up to try to get Americans better healthcare, or more affordable education, or safer housing.
Centuries ago, our founders set out for us one of the most frustratingly beautiful tasks I could imagine.
They acknowledged that our democracy would forever remain unfinished. They told us that our efforts to hone it would never be fully complete.
With their words in the Constitution, they asked us to recognize this.
To internalize it.
To process it.
Then to get over it. To get over that our Union would never be perfect. Then get to work pushing and pulling and tugging on it until it’s a little more perfect than it was the day before.?
Striving to make it a little better, a little fairer, hour by hour, bill by bill, Congressional term by Congressional term.
So that when we hand over the reins to the next generation, this country that we’re so proud to call our own is farther down the path toward perfect than it was when we started calling the shots ourselves.
I know—believe me, I know—that that kind of effort can feel Sisyphean at times. But the good thing is that, unlike Sisyphus himself, we don’t have to do it alone.
We have partners—on our own side of the aisle and on the other side, too. Pushing that boulder up the hill, working together to shape our democracy to be the best it can be.
E pluribus unum. Out of many, one. We may come from different backgrounds, we may have vastly different political beliefs, but we can and must come together for that one goal we do have in common: looking out for all those who call America home.
I think I’m out of time, so let me wrap by just saying thank you once more to the FMC for this honor. I’m forever grateful for the work that you do.
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