Kim Davis, Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses, loses re-election bid

Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk whose refusal to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples grabbed national headlines in 2015, has lost her bid for re-election to the Rowan County clerkship. The Republican lost to Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr., 54 percent to 46 percent.

With all 19 precincts reporting, preliminary results show Caudill earned 4,210 votes to Davis’ 3,566.

It was Davis’ first time facing re-election since the clerk’s fight against same-sex marriage landed her briefly in jail in 2015. She had defied the Supreme Court’s ruling that year in Obergefell v. Hodges, the landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, explaining that distributing marriage licenses to such couples went against her beliefs as a member of the Apostolic Church.

Her refusal quickly became a lightning rod of controversy, drawing support from social conservatives and anger from same-sex marriage advocates. Davis spent five days in jail for contempt. She argued that she was acting “under God’s authority,” and was freed after a judge ordered her deputies to issue the licenses without her approval.

Davis has said she no longer objects to issuing the licenses to same-sex couples because Kentucky dropped a requirement that the licenses bear the clerk’s signature. She, however, has become a prominent opponent of such marriage, and even visited Romania last year to push that country to prohibit it through an amendment to its constitution.

(PHOTO Pablo Alcala)