Kevin Farmer, Atlanta (Courtesy photo)

Back at his desk in the Clayton County District Attorney's Office Thursday, Kevin Farmer said he was “a little surprised” to win 55 percent of the vote in his race for a seat on the Fulton County Superior Court bench. Farmer barely made it to the primary two months ago, and his opponent, Fani Willis, nearly won the race outright with 49 percent of the vote. Farmer pulled in 31 percent of the vote in that three-way race. “I knew that, in a runoff, your job is to get your people back to the polls,” Farmer said. “I had 31,000 and change in the primary, and I got 31,000 and change in the general.” His total for Tuesday's election was 31,163. But the 56,343 voter turnout for Tuesday's runoff was just over half of that for the May primary, when 100,242 Fulton voters went to the polls. Asked whether the highly contentious race for the Republican gubernatorial nomination may have had something to do with his victory, Farmer noted that his race was nonpartisan. “But circumstances may have helped,” he said. “I think one party had something to vote for. The Democrats still had the state school superintendent race, but they didn't have anything matching that.” “I also think my message, that I've had a balanced legal career, really resonated with folks,” said Farmer, who began his career with the Fulton County Public Defender, then spent about 10 years in private practice before joining the Metro Conflict Defender's Office in 2011. Farmer joined the Clayton County DA's office in 2015, where he serves as a senior prosecutor. Farmer's race against Willis, a veteran Fulton County prosecutor, was also hard-fought, “but it was nowhere like the gubernatorial runoff,” he said with a laugh. “I will say this,” said Farmer, “Ms. Willis is a very smart woman and a very good attorney. What can I have to say bad about her?” Farmer's career does not include any judicial service, and he was asked whether he felt like the proverbial dog that caught the bus. “I knew how big the bus was,” he said. “I've worked in Fulton County; I knew what I was getting myself into. I had previous opportunities to run and I didn't think I was ready. I'm looking forward to it now.”