Two key figures at the center of Donald Trump’s Georgia election investigation are running for re-election on Tuesday.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) and Fulton Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee will face voters for the first time since Trump’s election interference case thrust the two into the national spotlight.
Any unexpected surprises in the race could create another obstacle in the path of the election interference case, one of several that have attracted intense public interest.
But even if Willis loses in an upset in Tuesday’s primary, Republicans are unlikely to flip the seat in the Democratic-leaning county.
“Fulton County is a tough nut to crack,” said Janelle King, a conservative media personality and former deputy state director of the Georgia Republican Party.
Willis is running for re-election against Democrat Christian Wise Smith, a former Fulton County District Attorney and founder of the National Social Justice Alliance.
Willis gained national notoriety in 2020 after unseating his former boss, six-term former Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, in the 2020 Democratic primary runoff.
Howard was mired in multiple controversies at the time, including receiving tens of thousands of dollars originally from the city of Atlanta from a nonprofit he ran, allegations of sexual harassment, and criticism of his handling of allegations surrounding the shooting of a black man by Atlanta police. Atlanta.
Wise Smith also made an unsuccessful bid to be Fulton County District Attorney that cycle.
Willis became a national household name in 2021 when he launched an investigation into Trump and other Republicans over efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. A few months earlier, The Washington Post had reported that Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger (R) to change the state’s election results and overturn President Biden’s narrow victory in the Peach State.
A Fulton County grand jury indicted Trump and his allies on charges of state racketeering, making false statements and soliciting a violation of oath, among other crimes.
However, revelations that Willis had a relationship with a fellow prosecutor, Nathan Wade – instigated by one of the co-defendants in the Trump case – roiled the case, leading McAfee, who is overseeing the election investigation case, to decide that Wade needed to get away. of the case. The Willis campaign declined to comment for this story to The Hill.
Wise Smith is launching a long shot to oust Willis. He told The Hill in an interview that if he won, his priorities would include reallocating resources to violent crimes and other serious crimes, “dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline” and not pursuing marijuana convictions.
Asked about her handling of the Georgia election interference case, Wise Smith argued that “Willis should resign,” saying he was concerned she could be removed from the investigation and her role as Fulton County district attorney.
“This case remains in grave danger with her as district attorney,” he said.
She has also earned her fair share of Republican critics, most notably Trump himself. Critics believe her case against Trump and his allies is too broad and criticize her for not focusing on issues pertinent to the county, such as crime.
Republican strategist Brian Robinson suggested that Willis had multiple vulnerabilities that his Democratic opponent could have taken advantage of.
“When this all started, we were still suffering from that post-COVID crime wave and Fulton was already very busy not taking on what should have been a federal case,” he said. “There are a lot of negatives you could have gone after her for, but it didn’t materialize.”
Despite the controversy, however, both Democrats and Republicans hope that Willis can win his primary.
“I personally admire her,” said state Rep. Shea Roberts (D), whose seat includes parts of DeKalb and Fulton counties. “I appreciate her because I don’t think there are many people who would resist all the distractions that Trump tried to bring to this case, the death threats. She does it with grace and continues to do her job.”
Assuming Willis wins her Democratic primary, she is expected to face Republican Courtney Kramer, a former legal intern during the Trump administration who also worked as a litigation consultant for the Trump campaign after the 2020 election.
Kramer accused Willis of politically persecuting Republicans in the state and criticized Willis’ work as Fulton County’s chief prosecutor.
“I feel like we don’t have someone standing up for everyone collectively,” Kramer told The Hill.
“Fani Willis is standing up for herself and fighting for herself and maybe her own political party, sure, but that’s not the job,” she added.
The Republican lawyer said that given her past work with some of the defendants in the Georgia investigation, she would recuse herself from the case if she won in November.
Given the heavily Democratic leanings of Fulton County, which favored Biden by 46 points in 2020, it will be an uphill battle for Kramer.
McAfee is also running against an opponent, Robert Patillo II, an attorney and executive director of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition’s Peachtree Street Project. Patillo considers himself a “conservative Democrat” who believes he has more experience than McAfee, who is in his early thirties, citing his time as a civil rights lawyer.
He also suggested that the case went off the rails, which Patillo attributes in part to McAfee’s inexperience.
McAfee campaign consultant Fredrick Hicks declined to comment to The Hill via email, noting “the ongoing nature of the cases before Judge McAfee and in the high court,” but noted that “we are very optimistic about the outcome in [the] election and expect a full four-year term.”
McAfee is also widely expected to win his nonpartisan race on Tuesday and has won bipartisan support for his handling of the Trump case, especially his decision to keep Willis on the case while ordering Wade to drop it.
Some of these endorsements include Governor Brian Kemp (R) and former Governor Roy Barnes (D).
“I don’t think his opponent presented a credible challenge, and I think he’s threaded the needle on that decision in a way that won’t threaten him,” Democratic strategist Amy Morton said of his Willis-Wade decision.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
