Story highlights Mat Staver, the lawyer for Kim Davis, says "the Democratic Party has left her"

A tearful Davis receives an award at the Values Voter Summit

(CNN) Kim Davis has said farewell to the Democratic Party. The Kentucky county clerk at the center of a fight over religious freedom and same-sex marriage says she is now a Republican.

"She has come to the conclusion that the Democratic Party has left her," her lawyer, Mat Staver, said Saturday in a statement. "She has decided to switch her voter registration. However, the issue of religious freedom in this case is not a partisan issue. It is neither Republican nor Democrat. It is an inalienable right and what makes America the land of liberty."

Staver said Davis "has been a lifelong Democrat but has received no support from the Democratic Party or leaders."

The party switch was revealed Friday when a Reuters reporter asked whether she'd ever considered switching parties. Davis replied, "I've already done that."

The controversial clerk says the rest of her family switched parties, too.

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