David Ralston

On February 22, 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) introduced a resolution in the Georgia house (HR 328) calling on Ralston to resign as speaker, saying he felt "betrayed" and stating that Ralston "absolutely abused his power. He used his seat, and he's hurting people."

Out of 180 total members, just nine other state representatives, all Republicans, signed Clark's resolution:

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;" Turner stated that he felt "compelled by a sense of duty to call for the speaker to put the gavel down."

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.

Griffin representative Karen Mathiak (73rd district) initially signed the resolution, but later removed her signature.

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

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.

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.

Little to no pushback from judges has been found.

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.

Further, the Georgia legislature made itself exempt from the Georgia Open Records Act.

In response, Ralston stated that he would "continue to represent the people of the 7th House district, and... continue being speaker of the House."

He also lashed out at reporters, saying the media is interested in "profit[,] not truth."

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.

David Ralston was born in Ellijay, Georgia.

He attended Young Harris College, graduated from North Georgia College and State University, and later from the University of Georgia School of Law.

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.

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.

A 1905 state law (O.C.G.A. § 17-8-26) requires judges and prosecutors to defer to the schedules of any member of the general assembly who is also a practicing lawyer, and as speaker, Ralston was able to claim scheduling conflicts any time of year.

By delaying court cases in this manner, Ralston was able to keep his clients free on bond for months or even years, while weakening court cases over time by letting memories fade and evidence expire.

Some of Ralston's clients retained him specifically for these reasons.

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.

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.

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.

In April 2019, an independent researcher reviewed Ralston's court cases across eight counties and found that from 2010 through 2019, Ralston delayed 226 cases a total of 966 times.

Multiple attorneys wrote formal complaints to various judges regarding Ralston's delays.

In response, Ralston said that the researcher "does not understand the legal system or the criminal justice system... [and] didn't have anything critical to say about my performance as speaker."