Fani Willis, Georgia prosecutor pursuing election case against Donald Trump, is reelected

ATLANTA —  Fulton County Dist. Atty. Fani Willis, the Georgia prosecutor who brought charges against former President Donald Trump over efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has won her bid for reelection.

Willis, a Democrat, defeated Republican challenger Courtney Kramer, who had interned in the White House counsel’s office during the Trump presidency and is active in GOP organizations. Fulton County, which is home to 11% of the state’s electorate and includes most of the city of Atlanta, is a Democratic stronghold.

Willis took office in January 2021 after beating her predecessor — and former boss — longtime Dist. Atty. Paul Howard in a bitter Democratic primary fight in 2020. She had no Republican opponent in the November general election that year.

She made headlines just a month into her tenure when she announced in February 2021 that she was investigating whether Trump and others broke any laws while trying to overturn his narrow loss in the state to Democrat Joe Biden. Two and a half years later, after an investigation that included calling dozens of witnesses before a special grand jury, she obtained a sprawling racketeering indictment against Trump and 18 others in August 2023.

Four people have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. Trump and the others who remain have all pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.

That case is largely on hold while Trump and other defendants appeal a judge’s ruling allowing Willis to continue prosecuting the case. They argue that a romantic relationship Willis had with a special prosecutor she had hired to lead the prosecution created a conflict of interest. The Georgia Court of Appeals plans to hear arguments on Dec. 5.

The election interference prosecution has made Willis the target of Republican attacks and investigations. Trump has repeatedly railed against her during public appearances and on social media. And state and federal legislators have opened investigations into how she runs her office.

Willis has also used the state’s anti-racketeering law to prosecute alleged gang activity, including a high-profile case against rapper Young Thug. That case has been bogged down by problems that caused it to drag on for nearly two years. Jury selection took almost 10 months and opening statements were a year ago this month. Young Thug and three other defendants last week pleaded guilty to charges against them, but two defendants remain on trial.

While Willis is a Democrat, she doesn’t fit into the group of progressive prosecutors elected in jurisdictions across the country in recent years. Some critics on the left believe she’s overzealous in her use of the state’s anti-racketeering and anti-gang laws, unnecessarily complicating cases to get the enhanced penalties attached to those statutes.

Progressive attorney Christian Wise Smith challenged Willis in the Democratic primary election in May, but she easily defeated him. Kramer ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

Brumback writes for the Associated Press.