Skip to footer

Why Kim Davis switched to the Republican Party

Kim Davis is part of a larger trend in political shifts; both the Republican and Democratic field is composed of candidates who have switched allegiances.

|
Chris Tilley/REUTERS
Kim Davis addresses the media just before the doors are opened to the Rowan County Clerk's Office in Morehead, Kentucky, September 14, 2015.

In the latest chapter of the story of Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis, the embattled Kentucky town official has chosen to switch her political affiliation from Democrat to Republican. She says that she made the move because she felt the Democratic Party had abandoned her. 

"My husband and I had talked about it for quite a while and we came to the conclusion that the Democratic Party left us a long time ago, so why were we hanging on?" She told Reuters. 

Kim Davis’s mother, Jean W. Bailey, was also a Democrat. Davis replaced her mother as county clerk following a successful bid for the position in 2014; she ran as a Democrat in that election. Davis was jailed in early September for citing “God’s authority” in her refusal to issue same-sex marriage licenses.

Davis continues to refuse to issue marriage licenses herself, although her deputy clerks have been issuing them on her behalf, as per the court order that allowed her release from jail.

During the legal battle, Republicans and some conservative Christians rose to Davis’s defense. On the other side, the liberal Human Rights Campaign, which works for the equal rights of lesbian, gay, and transgendered (LGBT) individuals, decried Davis’s actions as a “needless ordeal.”

At a rally held in honor of Davis’ release from jail earlier this month, Republican Party presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Sen. Ted Cruz were both in attendance. Senator Cruz said in a statement, “I call upon every Believer, every Constitutionalist, every lover of liberty to stand with Kim Davis. Stop the persecution now.”

The switch by Davis is one that's been made by many famous politicians, past and present. Both the Republican and Democratic field is composed of 2016 presidential candidates who have switched allegiances. These include Hillary Clinton, who was president of the Wellesley College Republicans during her freshman year at the college. She became a Democrat after that year; according to her autobiography “Living History,” her views changed on the Vietnam War and Civil Rights.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump has come under fire from his fellow candidates for his liberal positions. In the past, the real estate mogul has backed an assault weapons ban, argued for tax hikes on the wealthy, and registered as a Democrat. Attack ads from other candidates have shown footage of Trump describing Ms. Clinton as a “terrific woman.”

Ben Carson once described himself as "pretty left-wing Democrat," has also been criticized for his previous liberal positions, which include backing universal healthcare and praising Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D) of Massachusetts. Senator Warren, too, was once a Republican.

In an interview with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, Trump explained: "Ronald Reagan was a Democrat, and he was sort of liberal. And he became a great conservative, in my opinion, and a great president and a great leader.”

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Why Kim Davis switched to the Republican Party
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2015/0926/Why-Kim-Davis-switched-to-the-Republican-Party
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe