Trump's U.N. pick showered key GOP senators with donations

[DonViejo]

At least half of the GOP members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have received donations from Kelly Craft or her husband.

By LAUREN GARDNER 03/24/2019 07:01 AM EDT

If Ambassador Kelly Craft ends up before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for the ritual grilling of presidential nominees, she’ll be looking back at some of her favorite Republican senators.

Craft, whom President Donald Trump has said he’ll nominate to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, gave $5,400 to Marco Rubio’s primary and general election campaigns for his 2016 Senate race. She also donated the maximum allowed — $2,700 — to Sen. Todd Young’s and Sen. Ron Johnson’s respective general election campaigns that year.

And that was all after she and her husband, coal magnate Joe Craft, had thrown their influential support behind Rubio’s presidential effort, only to become prolific fundraisers for now-President Donald Trump when the Florida Republican dropped out of the race.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee boasts five former presidential contenders and a handful of members on the Republican side of the dais who recently won competitive races. At least half of the GOP members of the panel, which would have to vet the current U.S. ambassador to Canada again should Trump officially nominate her, have received donations from Kelly or Joe Craft since the 2012 cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records reviewed by POLITICO. The review was limited to candidates' campaign committees and leadership PACs.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/24/trump-united-nations-gop-donations-1286440