Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear says it’s hard to tell if the controversy over same sex marriage and the role Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis played in it had a significant impact on the November 3rd election.
That’s one of the issues the Democrat discussed with reporters on Tuesday during a wide-ranging interview on his two terms in office.
There’s been speculation that Kentucky voters turned against Democrats in the election for constitutional officers because of the way the Governor handled the matter.
“I believe, that Mr. Conway carried Rowan County, I know my son did, and I know other Democrats did and I think he did too. Course that’s where she’s the county clerk. Now it’s a university town and so, I have not seen any polling or any other kind of empirical evidence that would really tell us kind of what role that played in it.”
Davis, who is a Democrat, spent five days in jail after refusing a federal judge’s order to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. She objected to doing so on religious grounds.
Beshear says some of Kentucky’s 120 county clerks disagreed with the Supreme Court ruling legalizing same sex marriage but only three refused to obey the law. He says the rest were probably glad the Governor appealed the case and were satisfied that Kentucky had its day in the nation’s highest court.
