David Ralston, speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, dies at 68
David Ralston, the self-described “country lawyer” who helped set the state’s political agenda for more than a decade as the powerful speaker of the Georgia House of Representatives, died Wednesday after an extended illness.
Ralston, 68, a Republican who came from the hills of North Georgia, was elected speaker by the Republican majority in the chamber in 2010 after Glenn Richardson, who preceded him, resigned over a series of negative revelations.
He recently announced he wouldn’t seek re-election to the post because of his health problems. House Majority Leader Jon Burns of Newington was nominated Monday to become speaker in January when the General Assembly convenes for its annual session.
With Ralston’s death, Speaker Pro Tem Jan Jones, R-Milton, temporarily becomes speaker.
“The state of Georgia has lost one of its greatest leaders with the passing of Speaker David Ralston,” Jones said. “This is an unfathomable loss and one that leaves a hole in the heart of each and every House member.”
Gov. Brian Kemp said, “Speaker Ralston was a pioneer in the growth of Georgia’s Republican leadership and leaves an indelible mark on this state.”
Ralston took up the speaker’s gavel and brought a sense of moderation after some of the excesses of the Richardson era, but he also largely walked his party’s conservative line.
He will be remembered for commonsense, nonpartisan legislation, such as the expansion this year of mental health services, as well as reining in Republican colleagues who tried to foment the breakaway of Buckhead from the city of Atlanta. He also was a champion of cutting state income taxes, frequently stating, “Republicans cut taxes.”
Sometimes, he would also swing the gavel like a political hammer, as he did in 2021. The House passed a bill revoking the fuel tax break Georgia had accorded Atlanta’s Delta Air Lines after it and other large companies made a public statement opposing Republican legislation that was seen as restricting voting rights after President Donald Trump lost his reelection bid. The state Senate later killed that bill.
Charles S. Bullock III, a political science professor at the University of Georgia and a longtime Capitol observer, said Ralston took control of the House “at kind of a troubled time” and gained “respect on both sides of the aisle.”
He had a calmer demeanor than the often mercurial Richardson and was thought to hold the House in good order, Bullock said. Though that became harder to do as the fragmented politics of the Trump era impinged on state legislatures and pulled segments further right or left.
Ralston began his legislative career in the state Senate, where he represented a North Georgia district as a Republican at a time when Democrats ran the Statehouse. He grew up in the region and hung his lawyer’s shingle there after getting a professional start in Athens. He served in the Senate from 1992 to 1998 before making an unsuccessful bid to become Georgia’s attorney general.