1. Kelly Dawn Craft is an American businesswoman, politician, and former diplomat who served as the 30th United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2019 to 2021 under President Donald Trump.
47 Facts About Kelly Craft
1. 2.
Kelly Craft previously served as the 31st United States Ambassador to Canada from 2017 to 2019, the first woman to hold the office.
3.
Kelly Craft ran in the Republican primary for the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial election, but lost to Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron.
4.
Kelly Craft grew up just outside Glasgow, a small town in rural central Kentucky.
5.
Kelly Craft's father was the town veterinarian in Glasgow, and he farmed and raised cows and horses.
6.
Kelly Craft was active in the Democratic Party, and in his later years served as chairman of the Barren County, Kentucky Democratic Party.
7.
Kelly Craft was a deacon of the First Christian Church in Glasgow, and served on the local board of health.
8.
Kelly Craft's mother was a home economics teacher at Glasgow High School, a public high school.
9.
Kelly Craft has a younger sister, Micah Guilfoil Payne, and a younger brother, Marc Guilfoil.
10.
Kelly Craft played clarinet in the high school band at Glasgow High School, and graduated in 1980.
11.
Kelly Craft then created her own interdisciplinary major, with an emphasis on international law, at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
12.
Kelly Craft serves on the advisory board of the Canadian American Business Council.
13.
Kelly Craft was initially active in local politics and civic causes, such as helping the poor, and raising funds for the arts.
14.
Kelly Craft has been a generous donor to and supporter of primarily Republican political candidates.
15.
In 2004, Craft was a prominent supporter of President George W Bush's reelection campaign, and co-chaired the Republican National Finance Committee.
16.
Kelly Craft raised money for then-governor Ernie Fletcher, and congressmen Hal Rogers and Ron Lewis.
17.
Kelly Craft has supported both Democratic Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, and former Kentucky Governor, Republican Matt Bevin.
18.
Kelly Craft was a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention from Kentucky.
19.
Separate from politics, Kelly Craft has been a philanthropist, and the couple has donated to philanthropic causes.
20.
Kelly Craft served on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees for a term beginning in August 2016, but resigned to accept the US ambassadorship to Canada a year later.
21.
Kelly Craft has served on the boards of directors of the Salvation Army, the Lexington Philharmonic, the United Way of the Bluegrass, the YMCA of Central Kentucky, the Kentucky Arts Council, and the Center for Rural Development.
22.
On June 15,2017, Kelly Craft was nominated by President Donald Trump to become the US ambassador to Canada, with the support of Senator Mitch McConnell.
23.
Kelly Craft became the first woman to hold the job.
24.
Kelly Craft played a leadership role in trade negotiations between the US and Canada, resulting in the signing of a major new free trade agreement between the US, Canada, and Mexico, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement.
25.
Separately, a US official said that Kelly Craft was often in Washington for trade negotiations in which she was directly involved, that she would fly to other places in the United States to promote the trade deal which was one of the president's top priorities, and explained that Kelly Craft would during the course of these travels sometimes spend the weekend at her Kentucky home rather than return to Ottawa, which did not count toward the "26 [work] days" away from her post limitation.
26.
The State Department and Kelly Craft do not provide records of Kelly Craft's schedule and the number of days she was in Ottawa, but the newspaper said she spent 300 days away from her Ottawa post.
27.
Former Canadian Ambassador to the United States Frank McKenna said that Kelly Craft brought "charm and grace and listening skills" to the ambassadorship, and did "the job very well when at the top, the relationship is as bad as it's ever been".
28.
On February 22,2019, Trump announced his intention to nominate Kelly Craft to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations, replacing Nikki Haley, who had resigned two months prior, after his first replacement choice, Heather Nauert, withdrew herself from consideration.
29.
US National Security Advisor John Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both agreed that Kelly Craft was qualified and the most logical choice to replace Haley, and Mitch McConnell supported her for the ambassadorship as well.
30.
Kelly Craft was formally sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on September 10,2019.
31.
Kelly Craft condemned as "despicable" Hamas's violence against its own people, its use of Palestinian children as pawns, and its indiscriminate attacks on Israeli civilian areas, and called it one of the greatest obstacles to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
32.
In November 2019, Kelly Craft met with President of Haiti Jovenel Moise at the Haiti National Palace about ways to implement a consensual resolution of Haiti's political crisis through inclusive dialogue.
33.
Kelly Craft later met with political leaders from other Haitian parties, listened to their different views, and urged an inclusive solution with Moise.
34.
Kelly Craft urged the Haitian government to fight corruption, investigate and prosecute human rights abusers, and combat narcotics and human trafficking.
35.
That same month, International Crisis Group UN Director Richard Gowan reported that Kelly Craft had won credit for attending an unusually high number of routine meetings for an American UN ambassador.
36.
In December 2019, Kelly Craft said during a meeting of the UN Security Council that was called at her request that the US was prepared to take "simultaneous steps" with North Korea to achieve peace.
37.
In January 2020, after the US killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, who had led the Quds Force, in a drone strike, Kelly Craft wrote a letter to the UN Security Council in which she said that the act was one of self-defense.
38.
In May 2020, Kelly Craft spoke at a session of the UN Security Council, and said that the Council must ensure that armed groups in Lebanon such as the Islamist Hezbollah are disarmed, and that the role of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon is strengthened so that it can effectively investigate Hezbollah's violations.
39.
Kelly Craft noted that Hezbollah was dictating where and when UNIFIL could patrol.
40.
Kelly Craft said the US was deeply concerned about Iran's and Syria's transfers of weaponry to Hezbollah.
41.
In January 2021, Kelly Craft met with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen by video link.
42.
Kelly Craft declared her candidacy for governor of Kentucky on September 7,2022.
43.
Kelly Craft chose Kentucky state senator Max Wise to be her running mate.
44.
Kelly Craft's campaign focused in part on lowering the state crime rate.
45.
Kelly Craft said that, if elected, "we will not have transgenders in our school system".
46.
Kelly Craft was considered to have a fundraising and monetary advantage over her opponents, as she raised $752,000 within the first three weeks of her campaign, the second-highest Republican fundraising total behind Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles; by the end of 2022 she had taken over the Republican candidates' lead in fundraising.
47.
Kelly Craft married David Moross and then Judson Knight, and has two daughters.