Georgia DA gets challenge in primary

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis drew a Democratic challenger on Friday as her critics try to make her pay a price at the ballot box even as former President Donald Trump and his allies wage a legal battle to disqualify her from the election interference case.

Christian Wise Smith said he plans to qualify to challenge Willis in the Democratic primary on May 21. A progressive former Fulton prosecutor and city solicitor, he finished in third place to Willis in 2020 in the race for Fulton DA and waged a failed campaign for attorney general in 2022.

Willis is the odds-on favorite. Fulton County is a Democratic stronghold, and she is one of the most recognizable political figures in the state, if not the nation. She has the advantage of incumbency and amassed a small fortune in her campaign account.

But Wise Smith could still present her a political headache by trying to turn the race into a proxy fight over her racketeering case that charged Trump and 18 others with conspiring to overturn President Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 victory in Georgia.

And he could bring more scrutiny to Willis’ personal relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade that is at the center of efforts by Trump and several of his co-defendants to remove her from the case.

It’s highly likely that there won’t be a decision on whether to disqualify Willis and her office from the Trump case before the deadline to run against her closes today.

Wise Smith received about 23 percent of the Democratic vote in the primary for Fulton DA. He ran on a platform that included vows to no longer seek the death penalty, eliminate cash bail and decriminalize drug possession.

He went on to endorse District Attorney Paul Howard in the runoff, saying he was particularly troubled that Willis had received the support of the Atlanta Police Union.

“District attorneys are in a position where we work with the police, but our job is to hold them accountable if they go outside the law,” he said at the time.

Willis easily defeated Howard, a six-term incumbent, in a head-tohead runoff.

It’s still unclear if Willis will face a Republican opponent. Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler has led the push to draft a conservative attorney to challenge Willis. Loeffler called the November vote a “rare opportunity to restore balance” in the office.