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Kentucky clerk Kim Davis denied same-sex couples marriage licenses. She just lost reelection.

Davis gained national notoriety for refusing to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Kentucky clerk Kim Davis at her office.
Kentucky clerk Kim Davis at her office.
Ty Wright/Getty Images

Rowan County, Kentucky, clerk Kim Davis, who made headlines in 2015 for her protests against same-sex marriage, will lose her job after the midterm elections.

Davis, a Republican, lost to Democratic challenger Elwood Caudill. Caudill got 4,210 votes, or 54.1 percent, and Davis got 3,566, or 45.9 percent.

Davis received a lot of national attention in 2015 when, after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, she refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, citing her religious objections. After she was jailed for defying courts and refusing to do her job, some evangelicals, including Republican Mike Huckabee, rallied behind her. But ultimately, Davis agreed to let her deputies issue marriage licenses and was released from jail.

As Will Wright explained for the Lexington Herald Leader, Caudill previously lost by just 23 votes in the Republican primary for the seat in 2014. But he changed parties in 2015. Caudill then went on to beat David Ermold, one of the gay men Davis denied a marriage license, in the Democratic primary this year.

And on Tuesday, Caudill defeated Kim Davis.

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