Fani Willis Wins Election After Raising $2.5 Million for Campaign
Incumbent Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis won reelection by nearly 40 points despite Republicans ' attempts to oust her.
Willis rose to national prominence for her prosecution of former President Donald Trump and several allies for alleged election interference following that same election. While the DA comfortably won her primary in May with 89 percent of the vote, she did not run unchallenged, with a Republican candidate running for the office for the first time since 2000.
Courtney Kramer, an attorney who worked in the Trump White House and for the Trump campaign, told Newsweek in early October that she was running to defend justice in Fulton County. Willis' fundraising far outpaced Kramer's however.
Willis was declared the winner with 69 percent of the vote, according to WXIA.
How this compares to 2020 outcome
Willis ran unopposed in 2020, receiving 431,050 votes, and took over her old boss Paul Howard's role, after working for his office for 17 years.
Fulton County, which covers part of Atlanta, is seen as a Democratic stronghold and is home to around 11 percent of Georgia's electorate. In the 2020 presidential election, the county voted for President Joe Biden with 72.6 percent.
Shortly after taking office in Jan. 2021, Willis announced she would be prosecuting Trump and various codefendants over their roles in seeking to overturn the results of the presidential election in Georgia.
Since indicting Trump, Willis has faced criticism from many Republicans. The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee threatened to hold Willis in contempt of Congress if she did not comply with a subpoena and provide documents relating to her use of federal funds.
The DA has also faced controversy over her romantic relationship with Nathan Wade, the special prosecutor who she hired to work the Trump case. The judge on the case admonished her for a "tremendous lapse in judgement" but allowed her to remain on the case.
Who was Willis' challenger?
Courtney Kramer, 31, an elections law attorney, promised to focus on crime if elected to the DA's office.
"As a lawyer myself, it's disgusting to see her not follow her rules of professional conduct or take her oath of office seriously," Kramer told Real America's Voice in March. "It's a disgrace to the legal community."
On her website, Kramer argued that she was running to uphold the independence and integrity of the legal system so that it is "free from undue political influence or partisan agendas."
Kramer raised around $278,000 for her campaign, compared to $2.5 million raised by Willis.
What's next for the Trump case?
While two charges against Trump have been dropped , he still faces eight other charges relating to the 2020 election in Fulton County.
In September, Judge Scott McAfee rejected an attempt to dismiss the entire case due to the federal Electoral Count Act.
Trump did launch an appeal over the judge's decision to allow Willis to remain on the case and a Georgia appeals court is set to hear that case in December. The underlying case remains on hold until that issue is dealt with.
Kramer had said she would recuse herself from the case if elected, as she had worked in the Trump White House, rather than seek to have it dismissed entirely.
