Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who received international attention for denying gay couples marriage licenses, lost her re-election bid Tuesday, according to local reports.
Davis, a Republican, was about 700 votes behind her Democratic opponent, Elwood Caudill Jr., in her bid for a second term as Rowan County clerk.
[CLICK HERE for complete midterm elections coverage and results]
In the Democratic primary, Caudill beat David Ermold, the man whom Davis had refused to grant a same-sex marriage license, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported. Caudill, Rowan County’s chief deputy property valuation administrator, had unsuccessfully challenged Davis in 2014 in the Republican primary. Davis switched party allegiances in 2015.
“I want Rowan County and Morehead to get back to where it was and treat everyone equally and treat everyone with respect,” Caudill said Tuesday during an interview with NBC-affiliate LEX 18.
Davis was jailed for five days in 2015 for contempt when she failed to comply with a federal court order following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges. That decision made it legal for same-sex couples to marry in every state. After Davis declined to issue same-sex marriage licenses, citing “God’s law” as her reason, the fact that she had been married four times to three different men had surfaced.
Davis remained on as county clerk, but marriage licenses were issued without her signature. She also traveled to Romania in 2017 to support a campaign in that country to block the legal recognition of gay marriage. In 2018, she wrote a book about her time in incarceration and experience in the limelight.
