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The U.S. Senate confirmed Kelly Craft as the new U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in a 56-34 vote Wednesday, filling a seven-month-long vacancy.
Craft, 57, is currently the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, where she was involved in negotiations over a revised North American free trade pact.
Craft previously served as a U.S. alternate delegate to the United Nations in 2007, where her focus included U.S. engagement in Africa.
The largely party-line vote on Craft demonstrated a sharp contrast to that of her predecessor, Nikki Haley, who was supported by 96 senators during her confirmation vote in 2017.
Haley stepped down in December 2018.
Trump initially favored State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, a former Fox News anchor, to succeed Haley, but the nomination was never formally submitted and Nauert withdrew from consideration.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft react during a meeting in Trudeau's office on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, November 3, 2017. /VCG Photo
A major Republican donor
Craft has been a major Republican donor, and her husband Joe Craft, a wealthy coal magnate, donated one million U.S. dollars to Trump's 2017 inauguration fund, according to political funding tracker Open Secrets.
Democrats have expressed concern that her family ties to the industry may influence policy at a time when they want the U.S. economy to be turning towards new sources of power like renewable energy.
Last month during her confirmation hearings, she pledged to lawmakers that she would recuse herself from climate change talks involving coal at the global body, even as she stood by Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the UN-backed Paris climate accord.
U.S. President Donald Trump is greeted by U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft as he arrives to attend the nearby G7 Summit after landing at Canadian Forces Base Bagotville in La Baie, Quebec, Canada, June 8, 2018. /AFP Photo
But her declaration that she believed "both sides" of climate science raised eyebrows and indicated that she may be out of sync on the issue with the rest of the UN.
Democrats also voiced concern about her lack of relevant international and technical experience for such an important and demanding position.
In a recently released minority report, Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote that Craft "has neither the experience nor the skillset to represent U.S. interests or challenge the world's most seasoned diplomats on the global stage."
(With input from agencies)