Kim Davis is (well, was) the Kentucky clerk who, in 2015, became nationally-known for her refusal to sign marriage certificates for same-sex couples because: religion. But tonight, she lost her bid for re-election.
According to NPR:
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 her 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.
The entire ordeal cost the taxpayers of Kentucky about $225,000.
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Davis originally won the seat as a member of the Democratic party (seriously), but tonight lost to Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr. by 54 percent to 46 percent.
NPR also pointed out that one of the individuals Davis denied a marriage certificate to actually ran for office, but lost in the primary:
Her victorious opponent, Caudill, inevitably got caught up in the swirling controversy around same-sex-marriage licenses as well. Caudill’s rival in the Democratic primary earlier this year, David Ermold, was one of the men whom Davis had denied a license in 2015. Despite dramatically outraising Caudill, Ermold failed to win the nomination.
But after Ermold’s loss, he refused to throw his support behind his fellow Democrat, asserting in a Facebook post this summer that Caudill was an anti-gay bigot.