--- 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 title: Kim Davis, Who Refused to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Loses Kentucky County Clerk Seat image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb887a7352ebf50d1/69893e70457a524c27d5fd01/kim-davis-loses-election.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [2018 Elections](/tag/2018-elections/) ## 2018 Elections Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Kim Davis, Who Refused to Issue Same-Sex Marriage Licenses, Loses Kentucky County Clerk Seat by [Mahita Gajanan](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2018 1:54 AM CUT  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](/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Gajanan is an editor at TIME. Nov 7, 2018 1:54 AM CUT Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk [who was jailed in 2015](http://time.com/4025308/kentucky-clerk-kim-davis-release/ "undefined") 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 "undefined") 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/ "undefined") 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 "undefined") 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"}}]}] ```