L.F. Payne, a Democrat, represented Virginia’s 5 th Congressional District from 1988-1997. He currently serves as President of the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC).
Barbara Comstock, a Republican, represented Virginia’s 10 th Congressional District from 2015-2019 and currently serves as President-Elect of FMC.
Since its inception in 1974, the U.S. Association of Former Members of Congress (FMC)’s Distinguished Service Award has traditionally been given to a current or former Member of Congress, who has made extraordinary contributions to the United States Congress, public service, or representative democracy. Previous recipients include President Gerald Ford, Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, Senator Sam Nunn, and Congresswoman Gabby Giffords to name a few of our incredibly deserving past honorees. However, along with our colleagues, we decided to break FMC’s long-running tradition and dedicate our 2023 Distinguished Service Award to the people of Ukraine during our annual membership meeting last month.
Over the past year and a half, the people of Ukraine have shown the world how precious representative democracy is and why it is worth fighting for. For decades, we in the United States and our allied nations around the world, in Europe in particular, have enjoyed the freedoms that our representative democracies have produced for us and that our brave service members have defended overseas.
However, since declaring independence in 1991, freedom, democracy, and self-governance have been far from certain for the people of Ukraine. They took to the streets to protest an undemocratic presidential election in 2004, have dealt with Russia’s invasion and occupation of the Donbas region and Crimea since 2014, and now are fighting off Russia’s attempt to take even more land and overthrow their democratically elected government.
Despite the numerous internal and external threats that they have faced as a country within their short 31 years, the Ukrainian people have never lost their dream of living in a free and democratic Ukraine. Their resolve should truly serve as an inspiration for us all.
Today, many of our authoritarian adversaries constantly opine that democracy does not work and is an outdated model but the people of Ukraine and their unrelenting fight for freedom prove them wrong. From Lviv to Kharkiv, from the capital of Kiev to the villages in the Donbas, the Ukrainian people are not only fighting for their democracy, but they are also making the case for why representative democracy is the strongest, most enduring, and just system of government this world has ever seen.
They have reinvigorated the concept and promise of representative democracy on the world stage and for this reason, we along with our colleagues believe they are incredibly deserving of our 2023 Distinguished Service Award.
We were honored to be joined by Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova at our annual meeting, who graciously accepted the award on behalf of the Ukrainian people. In her speech, she spoke of the harrowing conditions they are facing both on the battlefield and in every aspect of daily life, Ukraine’s deep appreciation of the United States military and humanitarian support, and our shared values that their brave men and women are fighting for.
The award she accepted on behalf of the tens of millions of Ukrainians is made out of the original marble from the steps leading to the U.S. Capitol building. Steps that were traveled by those who played integral roles in the construction and fortification of our own democracy. Its symbolism is meant to underscore the value of the Ukrainian people’s contribution to representative democracy worldwide.
We were honored to recognize the sacrifices of the people of Ukraine in this way, and to use the broad bipartisan voice of our association to show support for the Ukrainian people.
We hope and pray for the safety of the people of Ukraine and will keep them in our hearts as they continue to fight for their freedom and inspire the rest of the free world.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner speaks to voters at a town hall at the Elks Lodge 188 on June 7, 2026, in Portland, Maine.
McConnell and Platner both feel entitled
The two men could not be more different. One, a Republican, octogenarian, seven-term Southern senator, the other a progressive, millennial Maine oysterman who’s never spent a day in elected office.
But Mitch McConnell, the senior senator from Kentucky who’s been MIA for the past few weeks and Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate who’s facing calls to drop out of his race against Sen. Susan Collins, apparently do have something in common: an outsized sense of entitlement.
McConnell, who is 84 and not running for reelection, has been hospitalized for three weeks, and yet we still don’t fully know what he was admitted for or what his condition is. Per CNN, “his office has not disclosed a medical reason for the hospitalization or provided specifics on his health status beyond saying last week that he ‘continues to improve’ and ‘is working closely with his staff on Kentucky and Senate matters.’ ”
While several legislators have said they’ve talked to him and insist he sounds strong, others have said they are completely in the dark. One MAGA influencer, Laura Loomer, posted ”High level source close to the White House tells me ‘Mitch McConnell is officially brain dead. He’s not coming back.’ ”
Meanwhile, up in Maine, Platner has been artfully dodging calls from his own party to drop out of his race after several allegations of misconduct from women, including a sexual assault allegation from a former girlfriend, came to light. While Platner, who has managed to survive a Nazi-tattoo scandal, a sexting scandal, and several old tweets scandals, denies the allegations, he has not quit.
High-profile Democrats including Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Schumer, the latter of whom had unsuccessfully hand-selected Maine Gov. Janet Mills to face Collins instead of Platner, have urged Platner to drop out, while other Dems have accused him of trying to influence the picking of his replacement.
Maine Democratic Party Executive Director Devon Murphy-Anderson released a statement Tuesday, which said in part:
“Unfortunately, Graham Platner’s team has repeatedly reached out to us in an attempt to put their thumb on the scale of what this process looks like. We have repeatedly reiterated to Graham Platner’s team that they have no role in determining our next Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate nor in determining what this process looks like.”
Both incidents show a deep lack of accountability to voters, who in one case deserve to know whether their senator is capable of performing his duties, and in another deserve a candidate who isn’t being accused of crimes, bigotry and deception.
The offensive and odious entitlement of both McConnell and Platner stands out not because it is particularly unique among today’s political class. Tom Kean, the New Jersey GOP congressman, missed more than 100 votes, only sharing after a three-month mystery absence that he was dealing with depression.
Former President Joe Biden’s Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin failed to disclose a hospitalization for prostate cancer surgery, flouting the established rules for Cabinet members and senior U.S. officials.
From Biden’s insistence on running for reelection despite his obvious cognitive and political weaknesses to Trump’s brazen flouting of laws and norms, few politicians seem to appreciate that their public service job comes with responsibilities to constituents, including transparency and honesty.
But both parties increasingly justify the chicanery, because the stakes of winning elections and keeping power are simply too high. But that’s no excuse. If we’ve learned anything over the past decade, it’s that character and accountability do, in fact, matter. And when we, the voters, stop caring about it, well, so do they.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.