Fani Willis Faces Another Test

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis will confront another hurdle to remain in office next week as Georgia voters will cast their ballots in the state’s open primaries.

Georgia holds its primary elections on Tuesday and voters will get the chance to select their party nominee for the office held by Willis. Although there have been legal efforts to remove her from the district attorney seat, this will mark her first time facing voters since indicting former President Donald Trump and his allies.

Running against Willis in the Democratic primaries is attorney Christian Wise Smith, the challenger who lost to Willis four years ago. The district attorney was elected in 2020 after defeating her former boss and six-term incumbent Paul Howard. At the time, Howard was facing sexual harassment allegations. In December, he was found not guilty of the charges leveled against him by a former employee.

This time, Willis is facing a controversy of her own. Amid her efforts to prosecute Trump and 18 co-defendants in a sweeping election interference case, her personal relationship with Nathan Wade, whom she had appointed as special prosecutor, has come under fire. Willis and Wade have admitted to the relationship but said that it ended in the summer and does not present a conflict of interest.

Since their relationship came to light in a January court filing, Trump and his co-defendants have sought to disqualify Willis from the prosecution. There have also been efforts from Republicans in the state legislature to remove Willis as district attorney.

In March, Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act case pertaining to the 2020 election, ruled that Willis could stay on, but only if Wade stepped down. Wade resigned hours later, but McAfee’s ruling is under review by the Georgia Court of Appeals and could be overturned.

McAfee is also be up for reelection this year. On Tuesday, he will face off against attorney and radio host Robert Patillo in a nonpartisan race. McAfee was appointed to his position by Governor Brian Kemp in 2022.

If Willis wins on Tuesday, as is expected, according to local polls, she will advance to face Courtney Kramer, an attorney who previously interned at the Office of White House Counsel during the Trump administration A poll conducted by Georgia-based political consultant Fred Hicks found that Willis is favored to win the primary with 79 percent support from likely Democratic voters.

As of Thursday, there were nearly 8 million registered voters in Georgia. Voters in the state do not register by party and the state’s primaries are open, which means voters can choose either party ballot.

Early voting ends Friday and state election data shows that as of Friday, more than 468,000 voters have already cast their ballots. An additional 35,000 absentee ballots have also been returned. In Fulton County, there have already been 48,479 votes cast for Tuesday’s primary, a 6.6 percent turnout for the county’s over 735,000 registered voters.