Former U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft enters Kentucky governor race, launches campaign site

Kelly Craft has officially thrown her hat in the ring for the Kentucky governor’s race.

Craft, a Lexington resident and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under president Donald Trump, launched her campaign website on Wednesday, putting her in the mix of Republican candidates vying for the party’s nomination in 2023 and ending months of speculation about her plans.

She joins an already crowded field of candidates running for the Republican nomination including Attorney General Daniel Cameron, state Rep. Savannah Maddox, state Auditor Mike Harmon, Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles and former northern Kentucky attorney Eric Deters.

Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, is running for re-election. He had raised nearly $3.5 million for the effort as of early July, and his team sent out a fundraising email in response to Craft, focusing on her wealth. It warned that Craft is “ready to spend millions of her own money to defeat Andy.”

Craft, who was also ambassador to Canada during the Trump administration, wrote on her campaign website, “I will seek to repair the connection between the people and their leadership, to give back to Kentucky a core of honesty and compassion.”

Craft recently drew headlines after bidding $5 million with Central Bank on the prize-winning ham at the Country Ham Breakfast and Auction at the Kentucky State Fair late last month. The duo had also placed the winning bid the previous year, at a joint $4.8 million. (The sale price of the ham is donated to charitable causes.)

In a digital ad launching her campaign, Craft focused on her roots growing up on a farm, the daughter of a country veterinarian in Glasgow, Kentucky. She painted herself as someone who is not “another politician making more promises” and is instead “a leader that is ready to keep one.”

She mentions her father throughout the video, and highlighted his faith, hard work and kindness.

Craft and her husband Joseph Craft – whose net worth has exceeded $1 billion – are top donors to the University of Kentucky basketball program, among other programs throughout the state.

No stranger to politics on a state, national and global level, Craft first became involved in politics as a fundraiser. She was “bundler” in 2004 for former President George W. Bush, and in 2012, she and Joe Craft were the state co-chairs for the Mitt Romney presidential campaign.

Kelly Craft part of record $5 million bid on charity ham, declines to share campaign ‘game plan’

Though Craft served as an ambassador under Trump and he joined her at the Kentucky Derby in May, the former president endorsed Cameron’s bid for governor this summer.

First District U.S. Congressman James Comer, who lost by the slimmest of margins to former governor Matt Bevin in a 2015 primary for the governorship, told the Associated Press that he was “all in” supporting Craft’s campaign. Comer’s close political ally Sen. Max Wise, R-Campbellsville, has not responded to questions about Wise potentially joining Craft in her run as a lieutenant governor candidate. Craft supported Comer in 2015.