On February 22, 2019, President Donald Trump (R) announced that he would nominate Kelly Knight Craft to be the 30th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Trump tweeted, “I am pleased to announce that Kelly Knight Craft, our current Ambassador to Canada, is being nominated to be United States Ambassador to the United Nations…Kelly has done an outstanding job representing our Nation and I have no doubt that, under her leadership, our Country will be represented at the highest level. Congratulations to Kelly and her entire family!”

 

Craft was confirmed to be U.S. Ambassador to Canada by the United States Senate on August 3, 2017. She is originally from Kentucky and served as the state finance chair for the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush in 2004 and Mitt Romney in 2012, as well as for other Republican campaigns in the state. She was a delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention and a member of the RNC Rules Committee.

 

If confirmed, Craft would succeed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. Haley served as the 29th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations from January 27, 2017, to December 31, 2018.

 

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N. is responsible for assisting the President of the United States and the U.S. Department of State in conducting U.S. policy at the United Nations, an international organization founded in 1945 with 193 member states.