Fani Willis Has Raised More Than $80,000 Since Indicting Donald Trump

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has raised more than $84,000 since indicting former President Donald Trump last summer.

State campaign finance data shows that Willis raised $84,758 between August 15, 2023, and January 31, 2024. Her campaign is likely to have raised additional donations between February and now, although it's unclear whether the recent efforts to disqualify Willis from the Trump case or her opponents' candidacy have curbed her fundraising.

Willis drew two challengers to her reelection bid last month after Democrat Christian Wise Smith and Republican Courtney Kramer filed paperwork to qualify as candidates for Fulton County district attorney.

Newsweek reached out to Willis, Wise Smith and Kramer via email for comment.

Willis' race has attracted national attention. Although Georgia tops the list of the highest number of donations to Willis' campaign, nearly 70 percent of the donations are from out of state. She's also received an influx of donations from California, Maryland, New York, and Wyoming. Between May 2022 and January 2024, Willis' re-election campaign raised a total of $326,042 from across 46 states, according to data from the Georgia Campaign Finance Commission.

Willis' campaign was flooded with donations in July 2022, when it received over 500 donations, accounting for nearly 40 percent of all the donations she's received up until January. However, it doesn't appear as though the indictment of Trump boosted her fundraising efforts much.

Between July and August 2022, Willis' campaign received just over 600 contributions, nearly double the number she received in the five months after she indicted Trump and his allies for their efforts to overturn the results of Georgia's 2020 election.

Willis announced the Trump indictment on August 15, 2023.

Willis is facing reelection as she moves ahead with the RICO trial against the former president. Last month, the judge in the case allowed her to stay on the prosecution as long as special prosecutor Nathan Wade, who Willis is in a relationship with, stepped down. He resigned hours after the ruling.

Their relationship has continued to cloud the case, despite the judge's decision that there was no conflict of interest because of their relationship. The attorneys for Trump and his co-defendants have appealed the ruling, asking the Georgia Appeals Court to review the matter and possibly remove Willis from the case, while state Republicans have launched their own investigation into the district attorney's alleged misconduct.

Although Willis has drawn two challengers in her reelection bid, Fulton County is still solidly blue. As long as she wins the primary, her odds of holding onto her seat and fending off Kramer's campaign would be high.

Before Kramer or Wise Smith entered the race, Willis welcomed potential challengers, telling reporters, "This is a democracy we live in, and so people have a right to run for office, but they should come prepared for a fight."

"They should know that my heart is still in this work. My heart will continue to be in this work and I intend to be the DA for the next four years and nine months," she said after filing her own paperwork to run for reelection.