James David Walker (December 13, 1830 – October 17, 1906) was an attorney and Democratic Party politician from Arkansas who represented the state in the U.S. Senate from 1879 to 1885.

That year at the age of 17, the young man began the study of law as a legal apprentice to an existing firm.

Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Walker was commissioned as a colonel of the 4th Regiment, Arkansas State Troops.

He defeated Robert Ward Johnson (1814–1879), a former Congressman and Senator who had been prominent in state politics before the Civil War.

His personal secretary was Elias Cornelius Boudinot, a Cherokee attorney and politician from Arkansas who had lobbied for railroad construction in the West.