David was born and raised in Columbia, graduating from Wilde Lake High School in 1999. He received an associate's degree in English from Howard Community College in 2005, and got his bachelor's degree, also in English, from McDaniel College (in Westminster) in 2007.

While in Carroll County, David interned and freelanced at the local bureau of The Baltimore Sun. And then from July 2007 to July 2010 he worked as a reporter for The Keene (N.H.) Sentinel, mostly writing about local and state government, and local, state and national politics, but also covering the occasional business stories, education stories, shootings, fires, features, and a month-long murder trial.