Director, Commonwealth Policy Center

When Rowan County Kentucky resident David Ermold filed to run for county clerk it made national news. Why would the national media be interested in a county clerk race in Eastern Kentucky? Because Ermold was denied a marriage license by the incumbent county clerk after the Supreme Court legalized homosexual marriage in 2015. Ermold is challenging Kim Davis for her seat. Davis believed it was wrong for the government to force her to violate her conscience and issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. For that she spent five days in jail. The law has since been changed to take county clerk's names off the licenses, but Davis has become a target and the national media will be watching on what amounts to a referendum on conscience rights in the 2018 election.