David Ralston

David Edmond Ralston (March 14, 1954 – November 16, 2022) was an American attorney and a Republican politician who was a member of the Georgia House of Representatives from 2003 until his death. From 2010 onwards, he was also its 73rd Speaker of the House. Ralston was the longest-serving Republican Speaker in state history and the longest-serving Speaker of the Georgia General Assembly since Tom Murphy.

Biography David Ralston was born in Ellijay, Georgia.

From 1992 to 1998, he served as a member of the Georgia Senate. In 1998, Ralston was the Republican nominee for attorney general of Georgia, but lost the election to Thurbert Baker. In 2002, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives for the 7th district. He was elected to serve as Speaker in 2010, following the resignation of Glenn Richardson. As such, he is the first state House Speaker from north Georgia in more than 150 years.

Georgia politics Ralston spearheaded economically conservative initiatives, including passing the first-ever income tax cut in the state in 2018 and eliminating the sales tax on manufacturers. In the wake of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Ralston led the effort to pass a state hate-crimes law. Additionally, Ralston passed reforms to Georgia's election process, most recently the Election Integrity Act of 2021. Although Ralston and Republicans said these efforts were to increase voter security within the state, critics said that they are intended to disenfranchise voters and lower turnout. State Bar reprimand In 2014, Ralston was investigated by the Georgia Supreme Court following a complaint that he had ignored a client's case for years and had failed to communicate. In 2016, Ralston and the State Bar of Georgia reached a settlement, with the Georgia Bar issuing a minor reprimand and Ralston admitting to inadvertently breaking State Bar rules, ending a years-long dispute. He had previously faced disbarment.

Court case delays In February 2019, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB-TV reported that Ralston regularly used his position as speaker to benefit his Blue Ridge-based private law practice. A 1905 state law (O.C.G.A. § 17-8-26)

Journalists found that over the course of 21 cases, Ralston requested delays 57 times, and that on 76 of the 93 conflicting days, the legislature was not in session; he would commonly delay individual cases over a dozen times each. Charges against Ralston's clients who benefited from this include drunk driving, child molestation, and assault.

The original law allowing this was amended over a century later in 2006 by SB 503. Previously, the law allowed representatives to delay court hearings only during the legislative session and for the following three weeks. A committee was formed to reconcile differences between the house and senate versions of SB 503, and Ralston himself was named a member. His exact role in crafting the current law's language is unknown. He also lashed out at reporters, saying the media is interested in "profit[,] not truth."

On February 22, 2019, after more than a week of relative silence from both Republican and Democratic lawmakers—due to what the AJC calls "a reluctance seemingly rooted in Ralston's substantial political power" —state representative David Clark of Buford (98th district)

Michael Caldwell (Woodstock, 20th district) Kevin Cooke (Carrollton, 18th district) Sheri Gilligan (Cumming, 24th district) Matt Gurtler (Tiger, 8th district) Jeff Jones (Brunswick, 167th district) Colton Moore (Trenton, 1st district) Ken Pullin (Zebulon, 131st district) David Stover (Newnan, 71st district) Scot Turner (Holly Springs, 21st district)

Gurtler told the AJC to "remember that legality and morality don't always align;" Moore wrote a letter to Ralston stating that "District 1 and many citizens across our great state believe you should no longer serve as the leader of Georgia's largest governing body"; Pullin said Ralston's "actions may be legal according to state law, but they're not ethical or moral;"

Local Republican conventions in DeKalb, Gwinnett, and Rabun counties called for Ralston to resign, as did the Gainesville Times.

Meanwhile, politicians from both sides of the aisle defended Ralston. The governor's office said governor Brian Kemp looks forward to working with Ralston.

Many other state representatives expressed support for Ralston; after the allegations surfaced, at a closed-door meeting of Republicans at the Capitol, Ralston received a "spontaneous" round of applause.

Conservative commentators were less supportive, with former radio host Neal Boortz declaring that Ralston should face ethics charges, and WSB radio host Erick Erickson said Republicans "[enabled] this and [let] it happen."

Changing the law On February 25, 2019, Ralston declared in an "emotional" speech to the Georgia house that he would establish a bipartisan panel to look into how the law should be changed; he also stated that as an attorney, he would not accept any new criminal cases for now. Ralston's speech received a standing ovation. However, the AJC reported skepticism of the new law due to the fact that "judges have already had the ability to push back on the speaker, but rarely did".

Ralston later clarified that his concerns were strictly about the likelihood of fraud: "It’s really not a question about higher turnout... It’s just that the election needs to be secure and it must have integrity. If it doesn’t, I think our chances obviously are problematic.”

2020 election After Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and pushed false conspiracy theories about the election results in Georgia, he called Ralston, asking Ralston to hold a special legislative session in the Georgia House of Representatives to overturn the election results. During the call, Trump falsely claimed, "we won this thing by 400,000 or 500,000 votes."

On November 4, 2022, Ralston announced he would not seek another term as House speaker, citing health concerns. He died 12 days later at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta.