Trump’s retirement conservative colonel is entering the 2026 congress race for the race for congress

EXCLUSIVE: An Air Force retired colonel who ordered the last American evacuation flights outside Afghanistan four years ago launched a republican campaign in the first district of the South Carolina Congress on Monday.

Alex Pelbath, who describes himself as a “Trump curator”, presents himself in the 2026 race to succeed in the representative of the GOP with three mandates, Nancy Mace, who offers a governor rather than re -select in the coastal district of South Carolina in the Lowntry of South Carolina.

“In combat, the mission is everything. My mission is clear: providing President Trump with the reinforcements he needs, offering leadership that makes Lowntry proud and bringing a foreigner’s prospect to Washington,” Pelbath said in a shared press release first with Fox News Digital.

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Alex Pelbath, Air Force retirement officer and pilot, launched a republican campaign for the American house on Monday in the 1st district of Congress in South South Carolina (Alex Pelbath campaign)

Pelbath spent 22 years in the Air Force, flying more than 4,000 hours, more than 1,000 in combat.

During the highly deceased American withdrawal from Afghanistan in the first year of former Biden President at the White House, Pelbath was commander of the air mission for the final evacuation of Kabul, supervising all the planes involved. And he personally managed the last American plane outside Afghanistan.

“I was the last. But the mission is not over,” said Pelbath in his statement and a video that accompanies him.

The navies assigned to the 24th Navy Expeditionary Unit (Meu) await a flight at the Air Base of Al Udeied, Qatar, on August 17. The Marines help the State Department to an ordered withdrawal from the designated staff in Afghanistan. (US Marine Corps Photo by the 1st lieutenant Mark Andries | AP)

The release of the Pelbath campaign stressed that he helped shape two defense budgets and advise the president of the chiefs of joint staff during his service in the Pentagon.

“I have witnessed the devastation caused by the weak leadership of career politicians,” said Pelbath in a statement. “I have never planned to introduce themselves for the congress, but I cannot bear while Washington puts the policy before the mission. America needs leaders who will be held with President Trump and will deliver his efforts to make America again large – by ending the flow of illegal immigrants, by stopping nonsense awakened in our schools and military, and in fighting for an economy that works. Lowcountry. “

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Pelbath, a graduate of the US Air Force Academy, lives in Mt. Pleasant, in South Carolina with his wife and their two children.

He became the second republican candidate to jump into the race, according to the businessman and politician Marvin “Mark” Smith, a state legislator at the Maison de Caroline du Sud since the 99th district.

The representative Nancy Mace, RS.C., announces that she will appear as Governor of Southern Carolina at a press conference at the Citadel in Charleston, in South Carolina, August 4, 2025 (Tracy Glantz / The State / Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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Mace, who was elected for the first time in the district in 2020, is one of the five main candidates who present themselves to the appointment to the governor of the GOP in the race to succeed in the term republican Governor Henry McMaster, who is the palmetto state of the state of Palmetto The oldest governor.

The South Carolina Attorney General, Alan Wilson, Lieutenant-Governor Pamela Evette, the representative Ralph Norman, and the senator from the State Josh Kibrell also seek the government’s republican appointment in the reliable red state.