Craft was born in 1962 in Lexington, Kentucky, the daughter of the late veterinarian Bobby Guilfoil and Sherry Dale Guilfoil. Her father was a Democratic Party activist who once served as chairman of the Barren County, Kentucky Democratic Party. She grew up in Glasgow, Kentucky, and graduated from Glasgow High School in 1980. She graduated with a B.A. from the University of Kentucky in 1984. Craft served on the board of trustees of her alma mater, the University of Kentucky, for a term beginning August 2016, but resigned to accept the Canadian ambassadorship a year later.
Political involvement and donations
In 2004, Craft was a prominent supporter of George W. Bush, who appointed her an alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2007. As part of the delegation, her responsibilities included advising the UN ambassador on US/Africa policy. Craft has been described as a generous donor to Republican political candidates. In 2016, Craft and her husband donated millions of dollars to candidates for the 2016 Republican nomination for president. Prior to donating more than $2 million to Donald Trump's campaign, the couple supported Marco Rubio. Craft and her husband, Joe Craft, have strongly supported Senate majority leaderMitch McConnell. McConnell in turn urged Trump to nominate Craft as ambassador to Canada. The Crafts have "gold"-level membership at Trump hotels, which is for customers who have stayed more than 20 times at Trump hotels; according to the Washington Post, such memberships are rare.
U.S. ambassador to Canada
On June 15, 2017, Craft was nominated by President Donald Trump to become the ambassador to Canada. She was confirmed by the United States Senate by voice vote on August 3 and assumed office on October 23. In her first week as ambassador to Canada, Craft said in an interview with CBC News that when it comes to the scientific consensus on climate change she believes in "both sides of the science." According to a June 2019 report in Politico, Craft was frequently absent from her Ottawa post during her tenure as ambassador. During a 15-month period, she took 128 flights between Ottawa and the United States, the equivalent of a round trip per week. 70 of the trips either had Lexington, Kentucky as the origin or destination of her trips, which raised questions as to whether the trips were for personal reasons. The Trump administration did not provide records of how many days Craft was present in Ottawa; per State Department rules, an ambassador may only spend 26 work days away from a post. She spent 300 days absent from her post. Craft does not make her schedules available.
U.N. ambassador
On February 22, 2019, Trump announced his intention to nominate Craft to replace Nikki Haley, who had resigned the previous year, to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, after his first replacement choice, Heather Nauert, withdrew her nomination. On May 2, 2019, Craft's nomination was formally sent to the United States Senate. On June 19, 2019, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. During the hearing Craft said that she would continue to fight anti-Israel bias in the United Nations. Although Craft had previously said during her tenure as ambassador to Canada that she believed there were "good scientists on both sides” of the climate debate, during her confirmation hearing she reversed her position stating that she believed that fossil fuels and human behavior have contributed to climate change. Due to her family's connections to the coal industry she also agreed to recuse herself from any UN discussions involving climate change or coal. On July 25, 2019, her nomination was reported out of committee by a vote of 15–7. On July 30, 2019, the Senate voted 57–33 to invoke cloture on her nomination. On July 31, 2019, her nomination was confirmed by a vote of 56–34. She was formally sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on September 10, 2019.
Personal life
Craft married David S. Moross and then Judson Knight. She wed Joe Craft in April 2016. He is a billionaire coal-mining executive for Alliance Resource Partners, L.P., the third-largest coal producer in the eastern United States.
