Two high-profile ambassadors among favourites to succeed Nikki Haley at UN

The White House is adding two high-profile women, both confirmed ambassadors, to the list of candidates to succeed Nikki Haley at the United Nations, according to two senior administration officials: Jamie McCourt and Kelly Knight Craft.

White House aides have said the president is inclined to select a woman for the post, and — while they stressed it’s still early in the process — that they are looking to tap somebody already in the administration.

“It’s so hard to get a security clearance so there’s a bias to get someone who is already in the system,” said a senior administration official.

McCourt, the American ambassador to France and Monaco, is a former corporate attorney and CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers whose 2009 divorce from former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt became tabloid fodder. She served as a California co-chair for the Trump campaign, and the president nominated her to serve in her current position in August of 2017. She was confirmed in November.

Craft, the American ambassador to Canada, is the husband of billionaire coal baron and Republican mega donor Joe Craft. She is the first woman to serve as ambassador to Canada and served as an alternative delegate to the U.N. in the George W. Bush administration. She recently worked with the Trump administration to hammer out the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, which raised her stock internally. Her experience at the U.N. may make her a more serious contender for the position and she has, to date, been discussed more internally than has McCourt.

Politico