Alex Pelbath, the last U.S. pilot to fly out of Kabul, Afghanistan, is ready for a new mission: running a campaign to serve in the House of Representatives.

Pelbath, 46, launched his bid for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District on Monday, one day before the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attack on Abbey Gate that took the lives of 13 service members at the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

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The Republican said in an interview with the Washington Examiner on Tuesday that he intentionally timed his campaign launch to avoid clashing with the anniversary to honor the fallen soldiers.

“I did not want to make today about my political campaign launch,” Pelbath said.

Pelbath, who served 22 years in the Air Force and is a retired lieutenant colonel, said he realized he wanted to run for Congress after seeing “firsthand” the impact that career politicians’ decisions can have on people.

In August 2021, Pelbath served as air mission commander for the final evacuation from Kabul and flew the last U.S. C-17 out of the country as the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan.

“This was sort of the very end of my career,” Pelbath said of the Afghanistan withdrawal, “and seeing firsthand what happens when politicians like [former President] Joe Biden and [Gen.] Mark Milley — even though he’s a general, I consider him more of a politician — but politicians like that put themselves before the country, then terrible things happen.”

“And what I realized in the last year is that I’m not going to be out of the fight, I’m going to be back in the fight, and this is the way we’re going to do it,” he added.

In his launch video, Pelbath called himself a “Trump conservative” who will be the reinforcement that President Donald Trump needs to advance his Make America Great Again agenda. The video used clips from the Afghanistan withdrawal, a decision over which Republicans have blasted Biden for years. The House Foreign Affairs Committee released a lengthy report almost a year ago detailing preparation failures and department-level mistakes that led to the 13 troops’ deaths.

The expected departure of Mace, who is running for governor, ushers in a rare opportunity for both parties to vie for an open seat without having to run against an incumbent. However, under South Carolina law, Mace does not have to resign her seat to run for governor and could remain on the ballot at least through the primaries.

The seat is considered a solid red GOP seat. The last time a Democrat held the seat was in 2018, when Joe Cunningham flipped South Carolina’s 1st District for the first time in nearly 40 years. Mace flipped the seat back to red in 2020, defeated a GOP challenger backed by Trump in 2022, and received the president’s endorsement in 2024 before handily beating her Democratic opponent.

The district’s solid red seat is thanks, in part, to South Carolina Republicans, as redistricting helped bolster her win in 2022. Under the 2020 map, she won with less than 51% of the vote. But under new lines, she received over 56%.

Regardless of who wins in 2026, the 1st District is likely to have different representation than constituents have seen in the last few years.

Mace started in Congress as a more centrist Republican unafraid to speak out against her party’s treatment of women when it came to abortion and reproductive rights issues. In the last few years, she’s pushed a more conservative platform and has amped up social media use as she frequently pushes back against transgender issues and activism.

She recently drew the national spotlight after she took to the House floor in February and accused several men, including her ex-fiancé, of rape and sex trafficking, among other alleged crimes. She also accused GOP state Attorney General Alan Wilson, who is also running for governor, of failing to prosecute the men. Mace faces fellow Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), a conservative Freedom Caucus member, in the primary, as well.

The House race to replace Mace is expected to draw a crowded Republican primary, though Pelbath currently only faces one declared GOP candidate: Mark Smith, a state representative who has served since 2020. The Post and Courier reported that Dorchester County Councilman Jay Byars confirmed he is considering a bid, with a decision coming after Labor Day.

On the Democratic side, Mac Deford, a Charleston lawyer, is making his second attempt for the House seat. Last year, he lost by just 700 votes to Michael Moore, the Democratic nominee to challenge Mace.

Pelbath, who moved with the military but settled with his wife and children in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2017, said his status as a “political outsider” makes him the ideal candidate to serve in the House of Representatives, because he has seen what “weak leadership” looks like.

“About 1,000 hours in combat, and the last four years of my career, I was a commander for multiple organizations,” he said. “And you learn how to make decisions under pressure — here’s the best definition of it I ever heard: doing the right thing regardless of the consequences.”

“Instead of political experience, what I have is real leadership experience,” the retired commander added. “Not just boardroom experience.”

He has not received an endorsement from Trump nor spoken to the president, but Pelbath said he has spoken to members of his team ahead of his campaign launch. He said he plans to be part of the movement to “drain the swamp,” a phrase used by fiscal hawks and MAGA Republicans to describe Washington politics.

“They have a tendency to put themselves and political narratives before what’s absolutely best for the country and the mission that we’re trying to accomplish,” he said. “So the selling point that we’re trying to make to the voters is, I don’t come with that type of baggage. I come with nothing but leadership and a servant’s heart.”

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When asked where he would fit into the Republican majority, Pelbath said he is, first and foremost, a conservative, aligns with constitutionalist principles, and supports a “peace through strength” military approach.

“It isn’t just working, like that matters,” Pelbath said. “You want to save lives? Peace through strength is the answer. What we saw in Afghanistan was the opposite of that. Why did that chaos occur? Because we didn’t project strength. Why are we not in any war right now? Why is the world coming to the table with President Trump? Because we’re strong, once again.”