Craft earlier was appointed by President George W. Bush as a U.S. alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2007, where her focus included U.S. engagement in Africa.

[7] In 2004, Craft started a marketing, strategic management, leadership advice, and business consulting firm, Kelly G. Knight, LLC.

[18] In 2004, Craft was a prominent supporter of President George W. Bush's reelection campaign, and co-chaired the Republican National Finance Committee.

[24][7][25] In 2015 they co-founded the Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics at Kentucky's Morehead State University, a special program for academically exceptional high school students.

[27] 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.

[12][20] She later said: "President Bush’s example and his initiative to cure AIDS on the African continent instilled in me the value of using diplomatic positions to help the less fortunate.

"[5] On June 15, 2017, Craft was nominated by President Donald Trump to become the US ambassador to Canada, with the support of Senator Mitch McConnell.

[41] In addition during her tenure the relationship between the countries was the subject of controversial steel tariffs, and critical comments by Trump about the Canadian prime minister.

[20][42] In June 2018, as US-Canadian relations grew testy, an envelope was mailed to her containing a suspicious white powder and a death threat.

[44] Separately, a US official said that Craft was often in Washington for trade negotiations in which she was directly involved, that she would also fly to other places in the United States to promote the trade deal which was one of the president's top priorities, and also explained that 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.

[46] Craft herself likewise insisted that all of her trips were taken in accordance with US State Department regulations, and with State Department approval, with much of the time spent negotiating the trade deal with Canada and Mexico in Washington, D.C.[46][45] She also pledged to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to deliver to it all of her travel records for her time as U.S. ambassador to Canada.

"[45] Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thanked Craft for what he said was her "dedication to building on the strong relationship between our two countries," and her help in "securing a new North American trade deal that increases the prosperity of both Canada and the United States".

[45] Former Canadian Ambassador to the United States Frank McKenna said that 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".

[49] US National Security Advisor John Bolton and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo both agreed that Craft was qualified and the most logical choice to replace Haley, and Mitch McConnell supported her for the ambassadorship as well.

The United States will never accept such bias, and if confirmed I commit to seizing every opportunity to shine a light on this conduct, call it what it is, and demand that these outrageous practices finally come to an end.

[59][60] Craft formally presented her credentials to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on September 12, 2019, saying: "I come to the United Nations not only as the President's emissary, but also as the voice of America's unwavering commitment to democracy, freedom, human rights, and wherever possible, the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

"[65] Venezuela had been accused of withholding from the Venezuelan people humanitarian aid delivered from other nations, and of manipulating its voters in exchange for food and medical care.

She 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.

[67][68] Craft later met with political leaders from other Haitian parties, listened to their different views, and urged an inclusive solution with Moïse.

[68] That same month, International Crisis Group UN Director Richard Gowan reported that Craft had won credit for attending an unusually high number of routine meetings for an American UN ambassador.

[70] In December 2019, 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.

"[71][72][73] In January 2020, after the US killed Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, who had led the Quds Force, in a drone strike, Craft wrote a letter to the UN Security Council in which she said that the act was one of self-defense.

[74] At the same time, she wrote in the letter that the US stood "ready to engage without preconditions in serious negotiations with Iran, with the goal of preventing further endangerment of international peace and security or escalation by the Iranian regime".

[75] On August 13, 2020, Craft celebrated the announcement of diplomatic relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel, calling it “a huge win” for Trump and for the world, saying that the diplomatic ties show “just how hungry for peace we all are in this world,” and saying that Mideast countries understand the need “to stand firm against a regime that is the number one state sponsor of terrorism”—Iran.

[77] Trump's senior adviser Jared Kushner, in his 2022 memoir Breaking History, credited Craft with both helping refine an urgently created UN Security Counsel resolution proposal calling for endorsing the Abraham Accords approach — meant to foreclose a concerning competing resolution proposal that had been created to scuttle the US peace plan, and with lobbying all of the US contacts at each UN Security Council member country.

[78] This led to Germany, France, the UK, and the Dominican Republic supporting the US proposal, while China, Vietnam, and Niger said they would abstain.

[78] Speaking about Iran and the US desire to restore UN s against it and extend an embargo to arms sales to the country in 2020, Craft said: "History is replete of tragedies of appeasing regimes such as this one, that for decades have kept its own people under its thumb.

[89] Speaking to the Council's treatment of Israel, Craft said: "We must deal with the insanity at the center of the Human Rights Council's persistent and egregious anti-Israel bias... No other country is targeted in this way — not the murderous Assad regime in Syria, not the disastrous Maduro regime in Venezuela, and not the Chinese Communist Party responsible for abuses; not Russia, Cuba, or North Korea.

"[90] Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian said: "Certain U.S. politicians will pay a heavy price for their wrong words and deeds.

[101] In January 2023, she vowed to apply a "full court press" to combat the Chinese Communist Party's alleged contributions to the fentanyl crisis plaguing the United States if she were elected governor of Kentucky.