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by WILL FOLKS
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The race for South Carolina’s first congressional district always draws a crowd… especially when the seat is coming open (as it is in the 2026 election cycle). Back in 2013, a special election for the former iteration of this district drew a whopping sixteen candidates.
This year’s field is far from set, but Dorchester County councilman Jay Byars has made it clear he is among those who intends to run.
“I can go up there and actually help the first district because I’ve already been doing work on the ground,” Byars said during a FITSNews in-studio interview earlier this month. “I’m not interested in the drama, I’m not interested in the cocktail parties. I’m not going up there for the social life.”
According to Byars, the top challenge facing the first district is infrastructure funding – and a permitting process for road-building that takes “years” to navigate.
“We’re vastly underfunded in infrastructure,” Byars lamented. “It takes years to get things permitted, which means it costs tens of hundreds of millions more to build roads.”
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Byars said, if elected, he would be “very different in my methodology for getting results than our current occupant,” referencing incumbent congresswoman Nancy Mace.
“I am a bridge builder,” he said. “I pick up the phone… to try to get things done. I enjoy working with people. I’m a teamwork guy. I just want to win – and I think if you go up there and you work with people to get things for your district, you’re going to get a lot more wins for the hometown folks, which is my whole reason for going.”
To get where he wants to go, Byars must first defeat a field of GOP rivals.
State representative Marvin “Mark” Smith – a (very) close confidant of former S.C. governor Nikki Haley – launched his campaign for the seat back in August. A centrist “Republican” who runs a network of funeral homes in the Palmetto Lowcountry, Smith has (until recently) been a loyal vote of the GOP establishment in Columbia, S.C.
Lately, however, the 54-year-old Bamberg, S.C. native has been voting more frequently with the fiscally conservative S.C. Freedom Caucus.
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Also running is Alex Pelbath, a former C-17 special operations pilot who recently retired from the U.S. Air Force after 22 years of service – having attained the rank of colonel. According to his campaign, he served as air mission commander for the “final evacuation from Kabul, overseeing all aircraft involved and personally flying the last American plane out.” A decorated pilot, he has received the Distinguished Flying Cross and was the first-ever recipient of the Air Force’s Sully Sullenberger award for courage.
In addition to his military service, Pelbath also has extensive budgetary and diplomatic experience.
Physician/entrepreneur Sam McCown is another contender – one who has pledged to commit significant personal resources to his bid.
“I’m running for Congress not to be another voice in the choir, but to get results for South Carolina’s first district,” McCown said in announcing his candidacy.
While these are the current announced contenders, this field is expected to swell in the weeks and months to come. As we have previously reported, Charleston County councilwoman Jenny Honeycutt is also considering campaigning for the seat – as is Beaufort County councilman Logan Cunningham.
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After 38 years of uninterrupted “Republican” rule, the first district – which spans from north of Charleston to the coast of Beaufort County – was briefly held by Democrat Joe Cunningham from 2019-2021. In the 2020 election, Cunningham was narrowly defeated by Mace – who won reelection decisively in 2022. Mace’s victory margins expanded further as a result of the 2020 redistricting process.
According to the latest Partisan Voting Index (PVI) from the Cook Political Report, the district is listed as R+6, slightly more centrist than it was two years ago (R+7).
The filing period for partisan primary elections in South Carolina opens in mid-March of 2026 and closes at the end of that same month. Partisan primaries are scheduled for June 9, 2026 – with runoff elections, if necessary, set for two weeks later (June 23, 2025). For those of you unfamiliar with election law in the Palmetto State, if no candidate receives a majority of votes on the first partisan primary ballot, a head-to-head runoff between the top two vote-getters is held two weeks later – with the winner advancing to the general election.
Next year’s general election is set for November 3, 2026. In that race, there are no runoffs – candidates must only receive a plurality of votes to win.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…
Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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1 comment
People are stepping up. Thats good news!