Georgia primaries include prosecutor in Trump’s election case
- DA Fani Willis faces a single challenger in the Democratic party
- Judge Scott McAfee is running in a nonpartisan contest
- If either is ousted Trump’s election case could be delayed further
(NewsNation) — Voters will decide Tuesday whether two key players in the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump will remain in office: Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee.
Willis has a single challenger in the Democratic primary and, if she wins, will face off against a Republican candidate in the fall.
McAfee has one opponent — after a second was disqualified — in a nonpartisan contest that will be the final word on whether he gets to keep his seat.
Whether they win or lose, Willis and McAfee will remain in their positions through the end of the year, when their current terms expire.
If either of them is voted out, it could further delay Trump’s case, which has already been delayed by attempts to remove Willis from the prosecution.
Willis vs. Smith in Democratic primary
Willis, who is leading the prosecution of Trump’s case, faces challenger Christian Wise Smith, an attorney and author who ran against her four years ago.
“I am at a point where I need Fulton County voters to get out and vote. I need people around the country to support me big and small, to say that we are going to be a country that believes in the rule of law, we are not going to allow people to be attacked while they do their jobs,” Willis said.
Willis and Wise Smith both worked in the Fulton County district attorney’s office under then-District Attorney Paul Howard. They both challenged their former boss in the Democratic primary in 2020. Willis and Howard advanced to a runoff that she won, and she ran unopposed in the November general election that year.
Wise Smith has said that as district attorney he would focus on victims, work to end mass incarceration and target the school-to-prison pipeline.
Courtney Kramer is running unopposed in the Republican primary and has already focused on attacking Willis. A lawyer who interned in the Trump White House, she has ties to some of the former president’s prominent allies in Georgia.
Meanwhile, two months ago, McAfee ruled Willis’ romantic relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade, whom she hired for the election case, didn’t create a conflict of interest that should disqualify Willis. However, McAfee said she could only continue the case if Wade stepped aside.
Wade left the case, but a defense appeal of McAfee’s ruling is pending before the Georgia Court of Appeals.
McAfee vs Patillo in nonpartisan race
McAfee, who has served just a year on the bench, faces Robert Patillo, a civil rights attorney and media commentator.
McAfee previously worked as both a federal and a state prosecutor and as the state inspector general. He was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp, R-Ga., in 2022 to fill an empty seat and has vigorously campaigned in recent weeks to win a full four-year term. His campaign has drawn support from a bipartisan slate of heavy hitters, including former Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat.
Patillo has stressed “competency, compassion and change” in his campaign to replace McAfee. He has shied away from directly attacking McAfee, but has stressed the importance of a varied background and said the “prosecutor-to-judge pipeline” can lead to biases.
Tiffani Johnson, who has worked as both a prosecutor and a defense attorney, had also filed paperwork to challenge McAfee. However, she was disqualified after failing to appear for a hearing on a challenge to her eligibility. After a judge upheld that disqualification, she asked the state Supreme Court to weigh in, but the high court has yet to act.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.