Jailed county clerk switching party to GOP
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, a longtime Democrat, said she is switching to the Republican Party because she feels abandoned by Democrats in her fight against same-sex marriage.
Davis made the announcement while in Washington to attend the Family Research Council’s Value Voters Summit, said Charla Bansley, a spokeswoman for Liberty Counsel, which represents Davis in her legal battles.
“I’ve always been a Democrat, but the party left me,” Davis said, according to Bansley.
Davis sparked a national firestorm by refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in June. Davis was ordered by a federal judge to issue the licenses but refused and spent five days in jail for continuing to defy the order, propelling her to folk-hero status among some on the religious right.
Republicans, not Democrats, came to Davis’ defense.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Baptist preacher running for president who is trailing badly in the polls, visited Davis in jail and held a religious freedom rally on the jailhouse lawn. Another presidential candidate, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, also traveled to Kentucky to bask in Davis’ defiance.
A judge ultimately freed Davis on the condition she not interfere with her deputies issuing the licenses. But her legal woes persist: On the day she returned to the office, Davis altered the license forms to delete her name and her office, which she replaced with the line “pursuant to federal court order.”