Former President Trump could have used the assassination attempt against him to further divide a politically fractured nation, but he instead chose to try to unify by exhibiting strength and offering an inclusive RNC message, the GOP congressional candidate running in the shooter’s home district said.
James Hayes, the son of a steelworker who went on to work for the Richmond Federal Reserve before returning to Pittsburgh, said his community is still reeling from both the assassination attempt and the discovery that shooter Thomas Crooks lived there.
Hayes, running against “Squad” member Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., said it is “unimaginable” that the incident would involve a community like Bethel Park.
“It’s a very conservative group of people that just absolutely love America. They’re very patriotic. And for someone to come out of that area and be the shooter is just unbelievable for all of us,” Hayes said.
“I’ve spoken to people in that area, and they just can’t — I mean, they just can’t believe that someone from that area ended up being the shooter,” he said.
Hayes added he was not at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally but did travel to Wisconsin to attend the Republican National Convention.
At the convention, Hayes said, Trump’s resolute reaction to nearly being killed showed why he deserved the nomination.
“I think President Trump could have gone either way. If [he] were the demagogue that [people] say, he could have used that [incident] to further divide us to cause further incitement. But he didn’t, because that’s not the person he is,” Hayes said.
“He reached out to America. He made the statement, ‘I don’t want to be the president for 50% of America. I want to be the president for 100% of America’. And I think that we should embrace that. We should embrace that as a people. We want to be Americans.
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“We want to be united as Americans. That’s what I want. That’s what I want for our community. And so I’m really excited that, maybe out of tragedy, something really good can come.”
In terms of his own campaign, in which he faces an uphill battle in one of the bluest districts in the commonwealth, Hayes said he remains optimistic, adding he best aligns with the values of the Pittsburgh area.
“We support our police. We support our energy industry. We want parents to be involved in our schools. We absolutely embrace immigrants. My wife herself is a Mexican immigrant, but we want it to be immigration that’s legal, that we want people that respect our laws,” he said.
He said he also hopes to win Democratic votes in deep-blue Pittsburgh, where he lives in the Shadyside neighborhood northeast of downtown.
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Democrats in Pittsburgh, he said, are not truly aligned with the far-left flank of the party and are still the blue-collar, working-class-values voters who personify the Steel City.
“They do not support Hamas. They are not looking to defund the police, to abolish prisons. They are not looking to shut down our energy industry,” Hayes said.
“The Democrats in this area embrace all of the values that I embrace, and so I fully expect that I’ll be able to get Republican votes, I’ll be able to get Democrat votes and I’ll be able to get independent votes. And that will carry me to victory.”
