--- title: Kim Davis Loses Re-Election Bid in Kentucky description: Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed in 2015 for declining to grant same-sex marriage licenses, lost her bid-for re-election canonical: https://time.com/5446954/kim-davis-loses-election/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-07T01:54:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:57:43.285Z article:section: Politics og:title: Kim Davis, Who Refused to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Loses Kentucky County Clerk Seat og:description: She became known in 2015 for refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples og:url: https://time.com/5446954/kim-davis-loses-election/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb887a7352ebf50d1/69893e70457a524c27d5fd01/kim-davis-loses-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: Kentucky county clerk says she won't interfere with gay-marriage licenses og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Kim Davis, Who Refused to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Loses Kentucky County Clerk Seat twitter:description: She became known in 2015 for refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb887a7352ebf50d1/69893e70457a524c27d5fd01/kim-davis-loses-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Kim Davis, Who Refused to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Loses Kentucky County Clerk Seat > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2018 1:54 AM UTC  Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, with son Nathan Davis, a deputy clerk, reads a statement to the press outside the Rowan County Courthouse on Sept. 14, 2015 in Morehead, Ky. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, with son Nathan Davis, a deputy clerk, reads a statement to the press outside the Rowan County Courthouse on Sept. 14, 2015 in Morehead, Ky. Lexington Herald-Leader—TNS via Getty Images by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2018 1:54 AM UTC Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk [who was jailed in 2015](http://time.com/4025308/kentucky-clerk-kim-davis-release/) for declining to grant same-sex marriage licenses, lost her bid for re-election Tuesday. Davis, a Republican, was up for re-election as clerk in Rowan County, Ky. She faced Democrat Elwood Caudill Jr. and lost by about 700 votes, the [Lexington Herald Leader](https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article221121745.html) reports. Davis became a conservative icon following her controversial refusal to issue marriage licenses to gay couples after same-sex marriage was legalized in the U.S. in 2015\. After spending five days in jail, she continued to serve as clerk in Rowan County. This was the second time Caudill ran against Davis — he lost by 23 votes in 2014\. He won a primary race this year against David Ermold, a gay man [denied a marriage license](http://time.com/5288014/kim-davis-david-ermold-county-clerk-race/) by Davis, in a bid for the Democratic nomination. After losing the nomination, Ermold accused Caudill of being a [bigot who uses anti-gay slurs](https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kim-davis-elwood-caudill-election%5Fus%5F5bad1729e4b0425e3c217834) and said he would not vote for either him or Davis in the election, the Associated Press reports. Caudill has denied the accusations of bigotry. He told the AP in September that he would abide by the law when it comes to treating people equally. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5446954/kim-davis-loses-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5446954/kim-davis-loses-election/"},"headline":"Kim Davis, Who Refused to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Loses Kentucky County Clerk Seat","datePublished":"2018-11-07T01:54:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:57:43.285Z","description":"She became known in 2015 for refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples","url":"https://time.com/5446954/kim-davis-loses-election/","keywords":["2018 Elections","Kentucky","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb887a7352ebf50d1/69893e70457a524c27d5fd01/kim-davis-loses-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mahita Gajanan","jobTitle":"Gajanan is an editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb887a7352ebf50d1/69893e70457a524c27d5fd01/kim-davis-loses-election.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kentucky county clerk says she won't interfere with gay-marriage licenses","caption":"Kentucky county clerk says she won't interfere with gay-marriage licenses","creditText":"Lexington Herald-Leader—TNS via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2018-elections/","name":"2018 Elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5446954/kim-davis-loses-election/","name":"Kim Davis, Who Refused to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Loses Kentucky County Clerk Seat"}}]}] ```