Sen. Ted Cruz was headed to Kentucky on Tuesday to visit the jailed county clerk who defied federal law and refused to issue a marriage license for a same-sex couple.
The Texan joins fellow Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee in traveling to the Bluegrass State to show solidarity with the Democratic official from Rowan County. Kim Davis, a Democrat, was found in contempt of court and ordered jailed by Republican-appointed U.S. District Judge David Bunning after refusing to process a marriage license for a same-sex couple, in accordance with the Supreme Court ruling that made gay and lesbian unions legal in all 50 states.
Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and one-time Baptist minister, announced Sunday that he would hold a rally in support of Davis outside the Carter County courthouse where she is being held. Cruz, who has made protecting the religious liberty of social conservatives a major plank of his 2016 platform, was in the process of making plans to travel to Kentucky to lend his support. Last month, Cruz organized a campaign event in Iowa specifically to address the issue of religious liberty.
“Sen. Cruz stands with every American who the Obama administration is trying to force to choose between honoring his or her faith or complying with a lawless court opinion,” a Cruz campaign official told the Washington Examiner Tuesday morning. “No one should be compelled by the government to violate his or her religious convictions. Sen. Cruz will use all means possible to fight for Kim Davis’s first amendment freedom, and to ensure no other American is likewise targeted for simply living out their faith.”
Cruz does not plan to attend the Huckabee rally but will hold a press conference for reporters outside of the courthouse where Davis is being held.
Disclosure: The author’s wife works as an adviser to Scott Walker.
