--- title: Kim Davis: David Ermold Loses Bid in Kentucky Seat Race description: David Ermold lost his bid to challenge Republican county clerk Kim Davis. She denied Ermold a marriage license in 2015 because he's gay. canonical: https://time.com/5288014/kim-davis-david-ermold-county-clerk-race/ author: Mahita Gajanan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-05-22T23:50:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:21:36.968Z article:section: Politics og:title: Gay Man Denied Marriage License by Kim Davis Loses Bid to Challenge Her for Kentucky County Clerkship og:description: Davis spent a week in jail after refusing a judge's order to issue marriage licenses og:url: https://time.com/5288014/kim-davis-david-ermold-county-clerk-race/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8bc88e64e84bea9/6988f427bc6cfc16fb3e43d3/shutterstock_9263053a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3947 og:image:height: 2220 og:image:alt: Kim Davis Re-Election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Gay Man Denied Marriage License by Kim Davis Loses Bid to Challenge Her for Kentucky County Clerkship twitter:description: Davis spent a week in jail after refusing a judge's order to issue marriage licenses twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8bc88e64e84bea9/6988f427bc6cfc16fb3e43d3/shutterstock_9263053a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Gay Man Denied Marriage License by Kim Davis Loses Bid to Challenge Her for Kentucky County Clerkship > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### 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. May 22, 2018 11:50 PM UTC  David Ermold, right, files to run for Rowan County Clerk in Kentucky as Clerk Kim Davis, left, looks on David Ermold, right, files to run for Rowan County Clerk in Kentucky as Clerk Kim Davis, left, looks on Adam Beam/AP/REX/Shutterstock by [Mahita Gajanan](https://time.com/author/mahita-gajanan/) ## Mahita Gajanan Gajanan is an editor at TIME. May 22, 2018 11:50 PM UTC A gay man seeking to challenge GOP county clerk [Kim Davis](http://time.com/4072544/kim-davis-marriage-licenses/) in Kentucky lost his bid for the Democratic nomination to run against her, three years after she denied him a marriage license. David Ermold, who bid for the Democratic nomination in the primary race on Tuesday in Rowan County, Kentucky, lost despite raising out-raising fellow Democratic candidate Elwood Caudill by at least $200,000\. Caudill will now face Davis, the Associated Press reports. Ermold, his now-husband and several other gay couples were denied marriage licenses by Davis in 2015, following a landmark [Supreme Court ruling](http://time.com/3937983/supreme-court-gay-marriage-ruling-2/) that legalized same-sex marriage. Davis later spent a week in jail after refusing a judge’s order to issue the marriage licenses. The AP reports that Rowan County residents worried that Ermold’s bid for the nomination would bring back the heavy media attention the area received in 2015, as protests against Davis grew. Republicans in Rowan County have even suggested they may not vote for Davis after she brought so much negative attention to the county. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5288014/kim-davis-david-ermold-county-clerk-race/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5288014/kim-davis-david-ermold-county-clerk-race/"},"headline":"Gay Man Denied Marriage License by Kim Davis Loses Bid to Challenge Her for Kentucky County Clerkship","datePublished":"2018-05-22T23:50:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:21:36.968Z","description":"Davis spent a week in jail after refusing a judge's order to issue marriage licenses","url":"https://time.com/5288014/kim-davis-david-ermold-county-clerk-race/","keywords":["Kentucky","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc8bc88e64e84bea9/6988f427bc6cfc16fb3e43d3/shutterstock_9263053a.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/bltc8bc88e64e84bea9/6988f427bc6cfc16fb3e43d3/shutterstock_9263053a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Kim Davis Re-Election","caption":"Kim Davis Re-Election","creditText":"Adam Beam/AP/REX/Shutterstock","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/kentucky/","name":"Kentucky"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5288014/kim-davis-david-ermold-county-clerk-race/","name":"Gay Man Denied Marriage License by Kim Davis Loses Bid to Challenge Her for Kentucky County Clerkship"}}]}] ```