Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis looks on during a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump at the Fulton County Courthouse on March 1, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. | Source: Pool / Getty
Listen: It is no secret that the MAGA world is not very happy with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. Many of Donald Trump’s supporters likely had never even heard her name before Willis decided to hold the ex-president accountable for (allegedly) using voter fraud propaganda to interfere with the 2020 election in Georgia, but after she hit Trump and 18 of his alleged conspirators with a RICO indictment, she became their Devil and they have been trying their damndest to put her through hell.
None of it has worked, though. Despite the feckless probes into her office Republicans have been seeking, the failed bid to get her disqualified from prosecuting the RICO case over a relationship with Nathan Wade, who recently stepped down as special prosecutor in the case, and their numerous attempts at dragging Willis name through the mud, she appears to be more popular than she has ever been with her constituents.
Not only did Willis win Tuesday’s Democratic primary in Georgia for her Fulton County DA seat, which she has held since 2020, but she won with a higher percentage of the votes than in any of her previous primary races. That’s saying a lot considering she was also widely popular in 2020.
From Newsweek:
Willis won with 89 percent of the vote at the time the Associated Press called the race. Polls closed at 7 p.m. ET and the AP called the race shortly before 7:40 p.m. The result came as Willis seeks to continue her election interference case against former President Donald Trump.
Willis’ support in the primary was her best showing in a primary election. Willis last ran for election in 2020, when she defeated incumbent Paul Howard in a runoff after he held the seat for more than 20 years.
According to Ballotpedia, in the 2020 Democratic primary, Willis received 42.3 percent of votes, while Howard received 34.8 percent. Christian Wise Smith, who challenged Willis on Tuesday, received 22.9 percent in the 2020 election. Since no candidate received 50 percent of votes, Willis and Howard were sent to a runoff.
In the runoff, Willis received 71.7 percent of votes to Howard’s 28.3 percent. She then ran unopposed in the state’s general election. According to Ballotpedia, there were 173,056 total votes in the primary and 90,266 in the runoff, when Willis won 64,723 to 25,543.
Perhaps this is the reason Willis is so confident in herself and her mission in the face of white conservative racism, political mudslinging and threats against her life made by Trump supporters—and maybe she was right when she said they hate her because she’s a strong Black woman who is damn good at what she does.
“And the reality is, one of the reasons we are upsetting people is we’re so successful here in Fulton County,” Willis said recently during an appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show. “I have the third largest crime drop in America. We have it because we’re taking a balanced approach; both unapologetically going after gangs and violent criminals and anyone who should violate the law in my county. And we’re also doing programs. It has been a huge sacrifice, but it’s well worth it for my community.”
“I can’t explain to you how much I love the work that I do,” she went on to say. “I can’t explain to you how loved I feel by my community. You really should feel sorry for those that are trying to deter me from my work. It doesn’t do anything but motivate me to continue to work and to work hard. And so I’m not someone that’s going to be broken. But certainly, it has caused me to get thicker skin or to be more resilient, to dig deeper, to work harder. But what it has not done is deter me from my work.”
And there it is. Be afraid of Fani Willis, MAGAts, be very afraid.
SEE ALSO:
Fani Willis Calls Out Racism Behind Prosecutorial Oversight Committee As Trump RICO Case Stalls
