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Pres. Trump formally sends to Senate nomination of Kyian Kelly Craft as U.S. ambassador to U.N.


By Tom Latek
Kentucky Today

President Donald J. Trump has formally sent to the U.S. Senate, the nomination of a Kentuckian to serve as the nation’s ambassador to the United Nations.


Kelly Craft of Lexington has been serving as Ambassador to Canada since 2017, becoming the first woman to serve in that post.

Kelly Craft with Gov. Matt Bevin and husband, Joe, as she is sworn in as Ambassador to Canada. (Kentucky Today photo)


In her new role, Craft would also serve as the nation’s chief representative at the U.N. General Assembly, as well as on the Security Council.


She is no stranger to the U.N., as she was appointed in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush to serve as a U. S. delegate to the United Nations.

 
The Barren County native heads Kelly G. Knight, LLC, a Lexington-based business advisory firm. She has also been on the Salvation Army board of directors, and on the board of the Center for Rural Development, a nonprofit dedicated to economic progress in rural Kentucky.

She is a co-founder of the Craft Academy for Science and Mathematics at Morehead State University and is a former member of the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, her alma mater. 




Craft’s husband, Joe Craft, is the chief executive of Alliance Resource Partners, a large Kentucky coal producer.


She would replace former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who left the U.N. post at the end of 2018. 


According to POLITICO, Senate Democrats have said they will show no mercy during her confirmation process for the U.N. role. They plan to press Craft on thorny geopolitical issues, from Iran to North Korea to Venezuela.


There is no word yet on when those hearings will take place.


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