This former Trump intern has no chance of being the Fulton County DA. But she has to try.

Courtney Kramer has been an attorney for just under 3 1/2 years.

In that relatively short career, three of her former bosses – including former President Donald Trump – have been indicted on attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.

Kramer, who has no criminal trial experience, became the Republican nominee for district attorney in Fulton County on Tuesday. She's trying to oust Democratic incumbent Fani Willis, who is prosecuting Trump and 14 other defendants. Four others charged in the case already pleaded guilty.

This is not a hard call – Kramer will not defeat Willis in the general election.

That's not the point of her candidacy. The former Trump White House intern who would go on to work on his desperate and doomed attempt to undo the 2020 election is on the ballot as yet another way to attack his criminal case and the prosecutor leading it.

A Republican has no chance of winning Fulton

Just having a Republican on the ballot for district attorney in Fulton County is unusual. I searched county and state records as far back as they go online – 1972 – and could not find a Republican who sought the office in that time. That's more than half a century of GOP ballot no-shows.

Pete Skandalakis, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, told me that he's 68 years old and can't recall a Republican running for district attorney in Fulton County.

The office was led by Democrat Lewis Slaton from 1965 to 1996 and then Democrat Paul Howard Jr. from 1997 to 2020, when Willis defeated his bid for a seventh term. That's at least six decades of Democratic district attorneys.

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Kramer on Tuesday told a local television station that she thinks conservatives deserve a voice in Fulton County. Then she quickly pivoted to attack Willis, who had suggested she was not qualified for the job.

"You have to have a good head on your shoulders," Kramer said of district attorneys. "You have to know the rules of professional conduct. You have to know when you have a conflict of interest. And I have that. Fani Willis has proven that she does not have that."

Expect Courtney Kramer to attempt to attack the Trump case

The judge overseeing Trump's election interference case in March ruled that Willis could keep control of it but that the lead prosecutor she hired to run it, Nathan Wade, had to step down after it was revealed that they had started and then ended a romantic relationship.

Judge Scott McAfee, in an order now being appealed by Trump and some of his co-defendants, said Willis showed a "tremendous lapse in judgment" at the intersection of her personal and professional lives. I agree (and said so a month before the ruling).

That's fair game for any political challenger to poke at. Willis left herself wide open with her behavior. Trump and his campaign were always going to capitalize on that.

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And this appears to be Kramer's entire reason for running in a race she can't win. She can signal boost any Trump attacks on Willis, as she did in a social media post earlier this month, knocking Willis and other prosecutors with cases pending against Trump as "self-interested politicians who use their office for political law fare."

Kramer is so close to the Trump camp's 2020 election efforts that she said in an interview Tuesday if she's elected in November: "I have to recuse myself because I was involved with President Trump."

So while attacking Willis for acting with an apparent conflict of interest, Kramer acknowledges a conflict of her own large enough to keep her away from the biggest criminal case in the history of the office she claims she's trying to win.

Kramer's connection to Trump includes indicted bosses

Which brings us back to Kramer's former bosses. She interned in Trump's White House for four months in 2018 and then served as a "litigation consultant" for his campaign legal team from November 2020 to June 2021.

She was also a special counsel for the Georgia Republican Party during that time before moving on the the law firm of Smith & Liss.

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David Shafer, who was chair of the Georgia Republican Party while Kramer worked there, is accused in the August indictment of organizing a slate of fake electors in an effort to overturn the election.

Ray Smith III, a partner in the firm Kramer joined after the election, is charged on making now-debunked claims in state legislative hearings about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

Both, like Trump, have pleaded not guilty.

That's some LinkedIn page and campaign pitch for Kramer: Here's my work experience and my bosses now under indictment. And that's why I want your vote for district attorney!

Kramer has a role to play in helping Trump

How long are the odds for Kramer? In 2020, Biden won Georgia by a margin of 2% but beat Trump in Fulton County that year by nearly 3 to 1.

Even so, Willis told supporters after she defeated a Democratic primary challenger Tuesday with 87% of the vote that super PACs will sweep into the race to help boost Kramer's attacks on her and the Trump prosecution.

"While she is inexperienced and unqualified and does not represent the values of my county, don’t get confused," Willis warned. "She is a real threat because of who backs her and how they back her.”

Willis didn't mention Trump by name but threw plenty of shade his way, noting that homicide and other crime rates are declining in Fulton County as her office went after "violent criminals and the powerful, no matter how powerful they think they are."

Kramer could have a long and distinguished career in law that someday leads her to office as an elected prosecutor. That's not going to happen this year. Instead, she's playing the part of provocateur for a presidential contender who is also an accused racketeer.

Given the wreckage other Trump lawyers have seen from their service to him, I wonder if she'll look back on all this and consider it worth it.

Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fani Willis will beat the former Trump intern running for Fulton County DA