David grew up in a military family. His father was an Air Force Noncommissioned Officer, and his mother was a Registered Nurse. When his father retired from the Air Force, his family moved back to his father's hometown of Jesup, Georgia. David attended high school in Jesup and then enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. David attended Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College and earned his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Georgia Southern University in 1998. Upon graduation, he was commissioned in the United States Army, where he served as a critical care nurse for twenty-two years and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel. Over the course of his military service, David served at military bases all over the United States and deployed to the Middle East twice. In 2013, David earned a Master of Science in Nursing as a Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Post Masters Certificate as an Acute Care Nurse Practitioner from the University of Virginia. David retired from the Army in 2020 and moved with his family to Bulloch County because of the local area's excellent schools, community, and agrarian roots. He is currently employed as a flight nurse with a private air ambulance company based in Statesboro. David and his wife, Jessica, have been married for 23 years. She is employed by the Bulloch County Board of Education. They have two children: Emma (20) is a Sophomore at Georgia Southern, and Sarah (16) is a Sophomore at Southeast Bulloch High School. David volunteers at Southeast Bulloch High School with the Future Farmers of America and Health Occupations programs. In his spare time, he enjoys recreational reading, shooting sports, beekeeping, and maintaining his family's twenty-five-acre homestead.