Underdog Willis Challenger Aims to Reinforce Message: ‘Using Legal Tactics for Personal Gain Isn’t the DA’s Duty

Fulton County has only ever voted for a Republican presidential candidate twice in its history: in 1928 and 1972. But Republican Courtney Kramer has launched a bid to unseat District Attorney Fani Willis as she wages a lawfare campaign against former President Donald Trump.

One of the nation’s most reliably blue counties, a Republican winning the role of Fulton County district attorney is all but a fever dream. Kramer, a lifelong resident, said the state of affairs in the county — while Willis focuses on weaponizing the legal system and using “lawfare to go after her political opponents for personal gain” — motivated her to run despite the odds.

“I was not going to sit back and let the voters in Fulton County be told who their next DA is going to be,” Kramer told The Federalist. “They deserve a choice.”

Even if Kramer’s campaign to beat Willis is a long shot, The New York Times still fretted that Kramer’s run could give her “airtime on conservative media outlets” where she can “use the exposure to sow doubts about the prosecution of Mr. Trump in the run-up to the November election.”

Kramer explained her goal is to focus on educating voters about the intended role of the DA after Willis “made it political,” a move she hopes will help inspire traditionally Democrat voters to vote for her.

“People are starting to become aware of how much they are affected by their DAs,” Kramer said. “I think that up until now, these last couple of years, people didn’t really care who their DA was, but I don’t think they realized how much it affected them personally.”

Kramer said the crusades against Trump, including in New York City at the hands of George Soros-backed District Attorney Alvin Bragg, have taken the magnifying glass off serious issues like illegal immigrants murdering college students or criminals being let off easy.

“A lot of that is a product of having a DA that doesn’t do their job or is focusing on something else instead of prosecuting actual criminals for actual crimes.”

Atlanta, which is part of Fulton County, saw a 21 percent decrease in its homicide rate in 2023 compared to 2022 but still reported 135 homicides, according to Axios. But while homicide rates are down, vehicle theft and shoplifting rose 61 percent and 22 percent respectively, according to the report. Additionally, at least 10 inmates died in the overcrowded Fulton County Jail in 2023, according to NPR. One victim was allegedly murdered by his cellmates while awaiting trial, according to the report.

“The job of the DA is to protect the citizens here and that’s not being done. The misuse of funds, the lying, the lack of transparency, it’s not common among DAs. What’s going on in the office right now is not the job of the office,” Kramer said. “You go anywhere in Fulton County, it’s unsafe. It should never be that way. And the DA has the ability to make our streets safe, to put criminals away, to make sure our victims are being advocated for. She’s not zealously advocating for the people of Fulton County, she’s zealously advocating for herself.”

Kramer said she could not comment much on ongoing cases — including the lawfare being waged against Trump — since she would be in charge of overseeing them should she be elected, but said she would ultimately recuse herself from the Trump prosecution due to conflicts of interest.

“What I won’t do is sit there and prosecute a high profile case for political gain,” she said. “You have to not be focused on climbing the totem pole in politics and that’s what is happening right now with Willis. When you have political prosecution and lawfare being used, I’m not going to take part in that at all.”

Kramer, who is currently an associate at the Katz Law Group, said she would recuse herself from the case against the former president if she wins.

“I would recuse myself from the case because I have previously worked for one of the defendants on the case and worked on Trump litigation in 2020,” Kramer explained. Kramer served as special counsel for David Shafer, who is one of Trump’s co-defendants in Willis’ lawfare against the former president.

“I would recuse myself because I have a conflict of interest in that case, and Fani Willis, she clearly has a conflict of interest but she’s not recusing herself,” Kramer said, promising she would focus on crime plaguing the city rather than high-profile cases solely for political gain.

Willis was recently forced to decide between continuing her lawfare against Trump or keeping Nathan Wade, her lover whom she had previously hired to help run the prosecution, on the case. She chose the former.

The ultimatum came after Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee — who donated to Willis’ campaign in 2020 — said she potentially lied and had a “tremendous lapse in judgment” but could nonetheless continue targeting Trump so long as Wade withdrew from the case.

Trump, along with several other co-defendants, argued Willis should be disqualified from prosecuting them on racketeering charges related to the 2020 election because Willis has an alleged conflict of interest in the case, including having allegedly financially benefited from hiring Wade as a special prosecutor. Wade allegedly took Willis on lavish vacations using the money he earned while on the case. Wade’s law firm was paid more than $650,000 for his work over a two year span while the firms of other special prosecutors on the case were each paid less than $100,000, according to 11 Alive.

Kramer says Willis has “abused” her office.

“A lot of people say, ‘Oh, are you scared of Fani? This is a big race, it’s very Democrat in Fulton County!’ I’m not scared of Fani,” Kramer said. “But what I am fearful about is the Fulton County I see under a Fani Willis district attorney’s office because that’s terrifying.”

“Being an elected official is a privilege and when you abuse a privilege you risk it being taken away,” Kramer continued. “Fani has abused her privilege of being an elected official and I think the citizens of Fulton County deserve a choice.”