Kim Davis, the jailed clerk who refused to give out gay marriage licenses, was just honored at a surreal rally

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said he'd be willing to go to jail in place of a county clerk who is refusing to issue marriage licenses due to her opposition to same-sex marriage, as she delivered an emotional thank you to supporters at a rally after she was freed.

At the rally, outside the jail in which Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis was being held due to her refusal to issue those marriage licenses, Huckabee, a Republican presidential candidate, said that he'd go to jail to defend Davis.

"If somebody needs to go to jail, I'm willing to go in in her place. I mean that. I'm tired of watching people be just harassed because they believe something of their faith," Huckabee said.

Davis then came on stage at the rally, walking to "Eye of the Tiger."

"Thank you all so much. I love you all so much," she said to a roaring crowd. "I just want to give God the glory. His people have rallied, and you are a strong people."

Davis was released from jail Tuesday and plans to return to work this week, her attorney told reporters. But the judge who ordered her release, five days after he sent her to jail, said that she must not prevent her deputies from issuing marriage licenses to eligible couples.

US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) also stopped by the rally Tuesday to meet with Davis, while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) said last week that Davis should not have to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples because of her religious convictions.

Matt Bevin, the Republican nominee for governor in Kentucky, also posed for a photo with Davis.

Huckabee has been one of Davis' most vocal supporters, and has frequently railed against the US Supreme Court decision earlier this year that found gay marriage to be constitutional.

"The issue is whether the courts can just make a law out of thin air and then just apply it and punish people for something that's not even a law," Huckabee said Tuesday.

This isn't exactly true. Following a push by some states to avoid school integration mandated by the landmark 1955 case Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled again in 1958 that states have to enforce the high court's decisions even if they don't agree with them.