George Santos went from a Republican rising star — a congressman-elect for parts of Queens and Long Island — to a punch line on Saturday Night Live skits, as he faces a 23-count federal indictment.

For his next act, Santos is hoping eastern Long Island voters will send him back to Congress.

After announcing his campaign on social media during Joe Biden’s State of the Union address last week, Santos sat down with NY1 for his first TV interview on his return to politics.

“There’s only one way to win this. It's with transparency. Right? I have an uphill battle to climb. That’s true,” he said.

When NY1 asked Santos how he would convince donors to donate to his campaign, he responded, “In order to give confidence, I’ve created a very transparent process where I will have absolutely zero - I will be three, four, five times removed from any fundraising mechanism or finance or control over it. I am conceding it 100% to staff.”

Santos is taking on a Republican rival, mounting a primary challenge against the current congressman for New York’s first congressional district, Nick LaLota.

LaLota said when he first found out about Santos’ run, “I think I chuckled a bit about it.”

LaLota helped organize the successful effort to have Santos expelled from Congress. Still, Santos insists his run against LaLota isn’t personal, and it’s not payback.

“I’ll quote Michelle Obama. ‘When they go low, we go high.' Do you know why? I don’t like to dwell in the dungeon. I’ll leave that to Nick [LaLota]. He can dwell downstairs by himself,” Santos said.

“I think we’re going to run on a record of accountability, integrity, honor,” LaLota said.

When NY1 asked Santos why he was running in New York’s 1st congressional district and not for his old seat, he said, “There's races you can win. There's races you can absolutely not win. Tom Suozzi is going to stay in NY-3 for as long as Tom Suozzi chooses to.”

Last month, Suozzi won the special election to replace Santos, edging out Republican Mazi Pilip.

When asked why he thought Pilip didn't get more support from Republicans, Santos said, "In today's day and age, you need to be able to articulate your issues. She was unfortunately unable."

With Santos now focused on a June primary, political observers have said the odds are slim that he will even be able to collect the thousands of signatures needed in order to appear on the ballot in the next few weeks. Santos said don’t count him out.

“Today was day one of organization. I had over 80 volunteers in front of me today, and we did a splash. We did great. We’re organized,” he said.

With eyes set on returning to Congress, Santos told NY1 he’s leaving his federal fraud case in the hands of his attorneys.

“I let my legal team guide me into the best direction, and the best resolve and solution possible,” he said.

If Santos wins the primary in June, he could have to balance running a campaign while he's also on trial.

“We’re seeing it be done right now in a national stage, and the one page you can pull out of the playbook from President Trump is, trust the process, trust your team, and everything will be fine,” he said.

Santos told NY1 his attorneys are still working with federal prosecutors on a plea deal.