Fani Willis Sees Massive Spike in Campaign Donations

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is experiencing a massive spike in campaign donations that’s helped her more than double her entire war chest and pushed her campaign past the $1 million threshold.

Willis’ re-election campaign had a fantastic start to the summer, according to campaign finance disclosure reports. The latest filing, submitted to the state on Wednesday, shows that the district attorney saw her biggest fundraising haul yet, raking in $783,929 between May and July. That pushes her total contributions to over $1,333,600. Previously, her highest reporting period had been between February and May, during which her campaign received $226,942 in donations.

Newsweek reached out to Willis’ campaign via email for comment.

Willis has risen to national prominence for leading one of the nation’s highest-profile prosecutions.

In August, Willis indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 of his allies for their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The district attorney alleges that their actions violated Georgia’s sweeping racketeering statute—a law typically used for mob prosecutions, but which Willis has become well-known for using in other cases. Her office is also prosecuting Grammy-winning rapper Young Thug and 27 others under the racketeering law for their alleged participation in the Young Slime Life gang.

Willis’ election interference case was abruptly halted last month after the Georgia Court of Appeals said it would indefinitely halt proceedings in Trump’s case, as well as the cases of the other co-defendants who are seeking to have Willis removed from the prosecution over her relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade.

Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, already ruled in March that the district attorney could stay on the prosecution if Wade resigned, which the special prosecutor did hours after the ruling, but Trump and his allies have asked the appeals court to reconsider McAfee’s decision. A hearing for the disqualification motion has been scheduled for October 4, but the appeals court will have until mid-March to make its decision.

Willis won the Democratic nomination for Fulton County district attorney on May 21, defeating a challenge from author Christian Wise Smith. She will go on to face off against Republican Courtney Kramer in November. Willis is the favorite to win since Fulton County is heavily Democratic. The county has not elected a Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon in 1972 and Joe Biden carried the county with more than 70 percent of the vote in 2020.

Kramer, an attorney who has worked in the Trump White House and for the Trump campaign, has only raised a fraction of Willis’ campaign. Between May and July, Kramer raised $46,641, bringing her total contributions to $72,961.

“My opponent is completely unqualified, completely,” Willis told supporters after winning the Democratic primary. “She has less than 20 years of practicing law she has never been in a criminal courtroom.”

The district attorney said her primary victory was a “strong and a powerful message” from the voters of Fulton County who “want a district attorney that believes everyone deserves to be safe, and everyone is entitled to some dignity.”

“It’s a message that’s pissing folks off but there is no one above the law in this country,” Willis said.