Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis isn’t just facing a threat of disqualification from former President Donald Trump‘s criminal racketeering case.
She’s now also facing multiple challenges to her reelection in the fall.
Christian Wise Smith, a Democrat who has served as Atlanta city solicitor and as a Fulton County prosecutor, filed paperwork Friday at the Georgia state Capitol to qualify as a candidate for Willis’s position. His announcement came shortly before local attorney Courtney Kramer announced she would also run for the position as a Republican candidate.
The decisions by Wise Smith and Kramer to run for district attorney come as a judge is weighing whether to disqualify Willis in the sweeping election interference case involving Trump. The defendants are seeking her removal over the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Wise Smith is the founder of the National Social Justice Alliance and ran against Willis in 2020 when he campaigned on reforming the criminal justice system. He lost the primary to Willis and former District Attorney Paul Howard, who advanced in a runoff. Wise Smith subsequently endorsed Howard.
This week, Willis filed her qualifying paperwork for reelection amid unprecedented scrutiny of her thanks to a personal relationship she had with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired to help oversee the 2020 election interference case against Trump and 18 others.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who is presiding over the case, is also facing a reelection challenge by civil rights attorney and Atlanta radio host Robert Patillo, who told the Washington Examiner he was planning to qualify as a candidate by Friday. McAfee is also seeking reelection.
Patillo is the former executive director of the social justice group Rainbow PUSH Coalition, which was founded by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and has touted himself as a “conservative Democrat.”
McAfee was appointed to the bench by Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) last year to fill a vacancy and is up for reelection after his term ends on Dec. 31.
Phil Holloway, a conservative legal analyst, posted on X that the Willis “saga just became extra-political.”
The challenge against Willis stems from a motion by co-defendant Mike Roman, a Republican operative, that Willis and Wade had an improper romantic relationship that resulted in the district attorney receiving benefits when Wade used his credit card to pay for vacations the pair enjoyed after he was hired to help handle the case in November 2021.
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Roman’s attorneys claim the relationship between Willis and Wade began before she hired him to assist in the Trump prosecution. The pair testified that they had a romantic relationship that ended in summer 2023, and they both said under oath that it began in 2022, but defense attorneys say witness accounts suggest the relationship began as early as 2019.
McAfee is preparing to make a ruling on whether to disqualify Willis, Wade, or the entire district attorney’s office from handling the case against Trump and his allies.