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Election

Kim Davis Is Out as Rowan County Clerk

Elwood Caudill and Kim Davis

The antigay official lost her reelection bid to Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr.

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Bye-bye, Kim Davis. We won't miss you.

The clerk of Rowan County, Ky., who famously went to jail in 2015 rather than issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, has lost her bid for reelection, the Lexington Herald Leader reports.

Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr. bested Davis by about 700 votes, the paper reports. Davis had once been a Democrat but changed her party affiliation to Republican in 2015.

In the wake of the Supreme Court's marriage equality ruling in June 2015, Davis shut down all marriage license operations in Rowan County so she wouldn't have to approve the marriages of same-sex couples, which she said went against her Christian beliefs. Four couples sued, and the resulting actions saw Davis go to jail for contempt of court for five days for disobeying a federal judge's order to resume issuing licenses. She was released after one of her deputies agreed to serve same-sex couples, and the state of Kentucky eventually took county clerks' names off of marriage licenses, an accommodation she had sought.

The race was marred by allegations that Caudill was homophobic. The allegations came from David Ermold, a gay man who had been denied a marriage license by Davis and who then ran against Caudill in the Democratic primary. Ermold said Caudill had used antigay slurs, although he admitted having no firsthand knowledge of this. Ermold went so far as to say he hoped Davis would win, although he did not intend to vote for her.

Caudill denied he was at all homophobic and said some of the accusations came from a hacked Facebook account. And he received the endorsement of C-FAIR, the political action committee of the Kentucky Fairness Campaign, a statewide LGBTQ rights group.

Caudill ran against Davis in 2014 but lost to her by 23 votes.

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Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.
Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.