David 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.

[11] In the wake of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, Ralston led the effort to pass a state hate-crimes law.

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.

[14] 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.

Ralston had been known to seek revenge on political opponents and, as speaker, controlled two seats on the investigative panel of the state judicial qualifications commission.

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

[20] House majority whip Trey Kelley of Cedartown (16th district) stated "[i]t's really unfair to the speaker, because he also has a pretty important duty and an absolute right of privilege that exists between him and his client.

"[20] The Georgia Democratic Party released a statement declaring that "Speaker Ralston has abused his power as a public servant to delay and deny justice for crime victims,"[20] while former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams was more restrained, saying that she would "leave it to Speaker Ralston to determine if he's meeting his obligations both as an attorney and as a legislator.

"[30] On February 25, 2019, Ralston declared in an "emotional"[31] 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.

[32] Representative Scot Turner applauded the move to change the law, but said that Ralston still has "a lack of recognition that his actions have caused people harm.

"[27] 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".

[19] During the 2020 U.S. coronavirus pandemic, Ralston strongly opposed expanding use of mail-in ballots, under the reasoning that it would increase turnout, the possibility of fraud, and hurt Republican candidates.

"[33][34] 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.

[1][8] He was married to Sheree Ralston, and was a member of the Fannin County Chamber of Commerce and the Blue Ridge Mountains Arts Association.