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Fani Willis
2021 - Present
2029
4
Fani Willis (Democratic Party) is the Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia. She assumed office on January 1, 2021. Her current term ends in 2029.
Willis (Democratic Party) ran for re-election for Fulton County District Attorney in Georgia. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
At the time of her election as Fulton County District Attorney, Willis had worked as a Managing Attorney for the Law Office of Fani Willis, LLC since 2018, and served as Chief Magistrate Judge for the City of South Fulton, Georgia since 2019. Prior to that, she had worked as a Deputy District Attorney for the Fulton County District Attorney's office from 2001 to 2018. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science and government from Howard University in 1993, and a J.D. from Emory Law School in 1996.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Fulton County, Georgia (2024)
General election
General election for Fulton County District Attorney
Incumbent Fani Willis defeated Courtney Kramer in the general election for Fulton County District Attorney on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Fani Willis (D) | 68.1 | 355,894 |
| Courtney Kramer (R) | 31.9 | 166,427 | ||
| Total votes: 522,321 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Fulton County District Attorney
Incumbent Fani Willis defeated Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary for Fulton County District Attorney on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Fani Willis | 87.0 | 78,101 |
 | Christian Wise Smith | 13.0 | 11,684 | |
| Total votes: 89,785 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Republican primary election
Republican primary for Fulton County District Attorney
Courtney Kramer advanced from the Republican primary for Fulton County District Attorney on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Courtney Kramer | 100.0 | 18,180 | |
| Total votes: 18,180 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Willis in this election.
2020
See also: Municipal elections in Fulton County, Georgia (2020)
General election
General election for Fulton County District Attorney
Fani Willis won election in the general election for Fulton County District Attorney on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Fani Willis (D) | 100.0 | 431,050 |
| Total votes: 431,050 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary runoff election
Democratic primary runoff for Fulton County District Attorney
Fani Willis defeated incumbent Paul Howard Jr. in the Democratic primary runoff for Fulton County District Attorney on August 11, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Fani Willis | 71.7 | 64,723 |
| Paul Howard Jr. | 28.3 | 25,543 | ||
| Total votes: 90,266 (100.00% precincts reporting) | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Fulton County District Attorney
Fani Willis and incumbent Paul Howard Jr. advanced to a runoff. They defeated Christian Wise Smith in the Democratic primary for Fulton County District Attorney on June 9, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Fani Willis | 42.3 | 73,145 |
| ✔ | Paul Howard Jr. | 34.8 | 60,197 | |
| Christian Wise Smith | 22.9 | 39,714 | |
| Total votes: 173,056 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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2018
General runoff election
General runoff election for Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit
Kevin Farmer defeated Fani Willis in the general runoff election for Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit on July 24, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Kevin Farmer (Nonpartisan) | 55.3 | 31,614 | |
| Fani Willis (Nonpartisan) | 44.7 | 25,562 | |
| Total votes: 57,176 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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General election
General election for Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit
Fani Willis and Kevin Farmer advanced to a runoff. They defeated Bobby Wolf in the general election for Georgia 5th Superior Court District Atlanta Circuit on May 22, 2018.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Fani Willis (Nonpartisan) | 49.0 | 49,291 |
| ✔ | Kevin Farmer (Nonpartisan) | 31.4 | 31,594 | |
| Bobby Wolf (Nonpartisan) | 19.6 | 19,766 | ||
| Total votes: 100,651 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Selection method
There are 202 judges on the Georgia Superior Courts, each chosen by the people in nonpartisan elections to serve a four-year term.
The process for selecting a chief judge and that chief judge's term varies by circuit.[2]
Qualifications
To serve on this court, a judge must be:
- a state resident for three years;
- a resident of the circuit he or she is representing;
- admitted to practice law for at least seven years; and
- at least 30 years old.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Fani Willis did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Fani Willis did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Noteworthy events
Removal of Willis from role in the Georgia prosecution of Donald Trump (2025)
On December 19, 2025, the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled to remove Fani Willis (D) from the The State of Georgia v. Donald J. Trump. The court wrote, "The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DAWillis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring."[3]
On January 8, 2024, an attorney defending Michael Roman in the case filed a motion alleging that Willis improperly hired Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor because they were in a romantic relationship at the time. The motion further alleged that Willis had benefitted financially from hiring Wade. The motion requested the court issue an "order disqualifying the district attorney, her office, and the special prosecutor from further prosecuting the instant matter on the grounds that the district attorney and the special prosecutor have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case, which has resulted in the special prosecutor, and, in turn, the district attorney, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers."[4]
Willis filed a response to the motion on February 2. The response said the motion sought "to cobble together entirely unremarkable circumstances of Special Prosecutor Wade’s appointment with completely irrelevant allegations about his personal family life into a manufactured conflict of interest on the part of the District Attorney." The response said Willis did not have a personal relationship with Wade at the time of his appointment, that the personal relationship that developed between Willis and Wade did not constitute a conflict of interest, and that "the personal relationship between Special Prosecutor Wade and District Attorney Willis has never involved direct or indirect financial benefit to District Attorney Willis."[5]
On March 15, Judge Scott McAfee ruled that either Willis and her office or special prosecutor Nathan Wade would be permitted to continue with the prosecution if the other withdrew from the case. In his ruling, McAfee noted that while the defendants "failed to meet their burden" in providing proof of the relationship, there was a “significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team."[6] The same day, Wade resigned stating it was “in the interest of democracy, in dedication to the American public and to move this case forward as quickly as possible.”[7]
Willis began a criminal investigation into whether Trump or his allies attempted to change the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia on February 10, 2021.[8] Willis unsealed a grand jury indictment on August 14, 2023, that included Roman as one of the 19 criminal defendants. Roman was the director of Election Day operations for Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, and was charged on seven criminal counts.[9]
Criminal indictment of former President Donald Trump (2023-2024)
Former President Donald Trump (R) was indicted on 13 criminal charges related to interference in the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia. Trump pleaded not guilty on August 31.[10] Judge Scott McAfee struck three of these charges for lack of specificity on March 13, 2024, and struck an additional two charges based on the U.S. Constitution's Supremacy Clause on September 12, 2024.[11][12]
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) filed the indictment in Fulton Superior Court in Georgia, but the Georgia Court of Appeals removed her from the case on December 19, 2025.[13] Before Trump assumed office as the 47th president, the case was heard by Judge Scott McAfee.[14]
The indictment was unsealed on August 14, 2023, the same day it was announced that the grand jury had voted to issue an indictment.[9] It included the following charges against Trump:[9]
- violation of Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act;
- conspiracy to impersonate a public officer, to commit first degree forgery, to commit false statements and writings, and to file false documents;
- filing false documents; and
- issuing false statements and writings.
The indictment included a total of 41 criminal counts related to interference in Georgia's 2020 presidential election results against 19 defendants, including Trump, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R), former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer, and Georgia State Senator Shawn Still (R), among others.[9] McAfee struck six of these counts in March 2024 due to lack of specificity.[11] To view a full list of defendants and the charges issued against each, click here.
Trump's campaign issued a statement shortly before the indictment was released, saying, "GA's radical Democrat District Attorney Fani Willis is a rabid partisan who is campaigning and fundraising on a platform of prosecuting President Trump through these bogus indictments. [...] They are taking away President Trump's First Amendment right to free speech, and the right to challenge a rigged and stolen election that the Democrats do all the time."[15]
In a press conference after the indictment was released, Willis said, "I remind everyone here that an indictment is only a series of allegations based on a grand jury's determination of probable cause to support the charges. It is now the duty of my office to prove these charges in the indictment beyond a reasonable doubt at trial."[16]
The indictment followed a special grand jury investigation into whether Trump and his allies attempted to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. The grand jury convened in May 2022, and completed its investigation in January 2023.[8]
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Fulton County District Attorney |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ LinkedIn, "Fani Willis," accessed February 12, 2021
- ↑ American Judicature Society, "Methods of Judicial Selection: Georgia; Limited Jurisdiction Courts," archived October 2, 2014
- ↑ Georgia Court of Appeals, "Ruling," accessed January 29, 2025
- ↑ Fulton County Clerk, "DEFENDANT MICHAEL ROMAN’S MOTION TO DISMISS GRAND JURY INDICTMENT AS FATALLY DEFECTIVE AND MOTION TO DISQUALIFY THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY, HER OFFICE AND THE SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FROM FURTHER PROSECUTING THIS MATTER," January 8, 2024
- ↑ Associated Press, "STATE’S OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS ROMAN, TRUMP, AND CHEELEY’S MOTIONS TO DISMISS AND TO DISQUALIFY THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY," February 2, 2024
- ↑ The Washington Post, "Fani Willis can stay on Trump Georgia case, judge rules, as Wade resigns," March 15, 2024
- ↑ AP News, "Prosecutor leaves Georgia election case against Trump after relationship with district attorney," March 15, 2024
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Trump special grand jury probe in Georgia," accessed August 15, 2023
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Fulton Superior Court, "Indictment," accessed August 15, 2023
- ↑ NPR, "Trump pleads not guilty to Georgia election interference charges," August 31, 2023
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Fulton County Superior Court, "Order of Defendants' Special Demurrers," March 13, 2024
- ↑ NPR, "3 more counts are dismissed in the Trump case indictment in Georgia," September 12, 2024
- ↑ Georgia Court of Appeals, "Ruling," accessed January 29, 2025
- ↑ The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Trump, 18 others indicted for trying to overthrow 2020 Georgia election," August 14, 2023
- ↑ Truth Social, "Trump on August 14, 2023," accessed August 15, 2023
- ↑ 11 Alive, "Re-Watch | Fulton County DA Fani Willis holds press conference after Trump Georgia indictment," August 14, 2023
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by Paul Howard Jr. (D) |
Fulton County District Attorney 2021-Present |
Succeeded by - |
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