Fani Willis easily secured the Democratic nomination for Fulton County district attorney Tuesday, besting a left-leaning primary challenger as she looks ahead to a November contest against a first-time GOP candidate.
The veteran prosecutor defeated Christian Wise Smith, an attorney and former Fulton solicitor whose platform included legalizing marijuana and emphasizing prison diversion and other criminal justice programs. The Associated Press called the race less than 30 minutes after polls closed.
In a speech to a packed ballroom of supporters, Willis called her overwhelming victory “a mandate from all voters that what people want is a fair and just system.” It’s evidence, she said, “that voters don’t care about all the foolishness. They don’t care how many ugly stories are written. What they want is a DA that will be there and will treat them equally, and they know they have that in me.”
Willis is seeking a second term leading the state’s largest local DA’s office as she steers several high-profile racketeering cases, including an election interference investigation involving former President Donald Trump and a gang case that’s ensnared several of Atlanta’s most famous rappers.
She will face off this fall against Courtney Kramer, an election attorney who worked for the Trump White House and the Trump 2020 campaign. Kramer has been sharply critical of the election case and accused Willis of using her office for “political lawfare.”
Willis on Tuesday called Kramer “completely unqualified.” “She does not have allegiance to the people of my county. She has allegiance to politics and the powerful’s interests,” Willis said of Kramer, who previously worked on election-related matters for state GOP legislators and the Georgia Republican Party.
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
Credit: Ben Hendren for the AJC
Willis is seen as the overwhelming favorite, with high name recognition, a national platform and a flush campaign fundraising operation. She is also a Black Democrat in a diverse county that backed Joe Biden over Trump by more than 46 percentage points four years ago.
Tuesday’s vote total indicates that, at least among Fulton Democrats, voters weren’t dissuaded by the push from defendants to disqualify Willis from the election case due to her romantic relationship with the case’s then-top prosecutor. Defendants have appealed a trial court ruling that allowed Willis to stay on the case.
Willis has vigorously defended her conduct. However, on the campaign trail, the DA chose to focus on other matters, including declining violent crime numbers and balancing community outreach efforts with prosecuting the most dangerous criminals.
During an appearance late Monday on MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow,” Willis cast the contest as a fight for a DA’s office that’s “free from interference.”
“I need people around the country to support me, big and small, to say that we are going to be a country that still believes in the rule of law,” she said. “We are not going to allow people to be attacked while they do their job.”
Throughout the campaign, Wise Smith largely declined to directly criticize Willis. But that changed Monday, when he called for her resignation, citing questions raised by congressional Republicans about Willis’ alleged mishandling of federal grant money meant to process rape kits and aid at-risk youth. Willis has denied wrongdoing.
“The role of the district attorney is to protect the community in which it serves, not to steer resources intended to help rape victims and our youth,” Wise Smith said. “We need to get the office back on track.”
