Columbus district attorney race decides if appointed prosecutor stays in office. See results

Don Kelly has won the race for district attorney of the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, beating Anthony Johnson by a margin of 3,978 votes.

Kelly (R), the acting district attorney, told the Ledger-Enquirer after his victory Tuesday night, “I’m really grateful to all the people who turned out and voted.”

Kelly said he also is grateful for the clean campaign run by Johnson.

“Nobody attacked the other person personally, and I respect that a lot, and I’m glad that’s the way it was done,” Kelly said.

Kelly said he plans to make the system more efficient in his first elected term as DA, which he said his office already has been working on. The circuit’s judges will start a schedule in January that he said will be a step toward this goal.

“They (the judges) agreed to a scheduling system where we can put four attorneys going to every judge for every trial docket as opposed to two attorneys,” he said.

Kelly said he will be looking at a couple of different programs that offer services geared toward people at risk for violence before they commit a serious violent crime.

“This was certainly a team effort and there were a lot of people who helped me along the way,” Kelly said.

Kelly succeeds Stacey Jackson, who died in May.

Johnson (D), a prominent defense attorney in the Columbus area, told the Ledger-Enquirer after the final results were reported Tuesday night, “Even though I lost, and I would’ve loved to have won, I’m not discouraged.”

Johnson said he thinks the close nature of the race shows his philosophies are welcomed throughout the circuit.

Johnson also spoke about the style and substance of the race by both candidates.

“I think we (Johnson and Kelly) ran a very clean race, a race that was about the issues,” he said.

When asked if he would run again, Johnson said he’s not willing to commit.

“What I will say is that I have thought long and hard about running for other elected positions throughout the community,” Johnson said.

Kelly, a Republican, is from Columbus and graduated from Hardaway High School and from the University of Georgia. He earned his law degree from Georgia State University College of Law.

Kelly has 22 years of experience as a prosecutor with most of it in the local circuit. He has run the DA’s office since Jackson went on medical leave on Nov. 27, 2023. Kelly was appointed DA in May by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp after Jackson died.

Kelly previously pledged to “continue to focus on public safety, especially violent crimes, by holding those who commit crimes in our circuit responsible for their actions.”

“Don is running for District Attorney because now, more than ever before, we need a proven leader with a clear mission to protect every citizen from the growing threat of gang violence in our community,” Kelly’s campaign website says.

Johnson is a Columbus native who graduated from Carver High School in 2005 and then joined the Air Force, where he gained an associate’s degree before earning his bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University in Trenton, New Jersey, in 2009.

Johnson received his law degree in 2012 from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills, Michigan, he said.

Johnson said he was on active duty in the Air Force from 2005 to 2009 before serving in the Air Force reserves from 2009 to 2016. Johnson has been in the Army Reserves since 2016, he said.

Johnson received his license to practice law in 2012 with experience working as a public defender in addition to his private practice.

Johnson said he wants to focus on gangs and juvenile violence with another priority being speeding up the discovery process in court cases. Discovery is the process in which prosecutors share their evidence with defense attorneys prior to trial.

Johnson said he would also employ the judicial system’s “accountability courts” more often diverting first-time offenders from serving extended jail or prison time. The aforementioned courts specialize in cases involving issues like mental health and drug addiction.

This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 9:28 PM.