David Ermold is standing against Kentucky clerk who was jailed in 2015 for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses

Kentucky’s Rowan county town clerk Kim Davis came to international prominence when she was briefly jailed for refusing to issue same-sex marriage licenses after they were recognised in the state.



Now, one of the people she refused to license, Prof David Ermold, is to stand for election against her in 2018.

And as part of the democratic process, the two were back together at Rowan county courthouse to face each other across a table, while the official registration of his candidacy took place.

“I think we need to deal with the circumstances and the consequences of what happened,” Ermold told the Associated Press. “I don’t think the other candidates are looking at a larger message. I have an obligation here, really, to do this and to set things right.”

For her part, after shaking hands with Ermold, Davis said: “May the best candidate win.” Asked about her election prospects, she said: “That will be up to the people. I think I do a good job.”

Davis was elected in 2014 on a Democratic ticket, but switched to being a Republican over the issue of same-sex marriages. She was sent to jail in September 2015 for five days after she defied a federal judge’s order to process marriage licenses.

After she was freed from jail, she met Pope Francis. Mike Huckabee, who stood against Donald Trump in the 2016 US election Republican primaries, said of her: “God showed up. He showed up in the form of an elected Democrat named Kim Davis.” She recently visited Romania to campaign against equal marriage there.

Ermold said his campaign for 2018 would not focus exclusively on LGBT rights. “People are bickering and fighting with each other. This campaign we are putting together is about unity and bringing people together and restoring fairness.”