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.

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"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."

A criminal profiler said Thomas Matthew Crooks' assassination attempt on former President Trump in western Pennsylvania last week was likely not politically motivated and not a random act of violence.

Keith Howard, the chief deputy of the Morgan County Sheriff's Office in Georgia and a criminal profiler, shared with Fox News Digital the behavioral science behind Thomas Matthew Crooks' attempted assassination.

Howard said the shooting of Trump points to an "organized thinker" and not a random act of violence.

"As much chaos as these events may bring to what we observed, they really are organized thinkers," he said. "Think of it not as an impulsive act. They don't typically just wake up in the morning and go, ‘There’s going to be a presidential candidate in my county, in my district, so I'm just going to go over and try to kill him.'

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"Regardless of how, if you look at this type of individual and go, 'Well, he may have been a loner or didn't have many friends or weren't close, it doesn't mean he can't think," he said.

Howard said the FBI's investigation may reveal this is a crime of opportunity.

"And if we do this behavioral analysis, if he's searching for something to be infamous, then when he's searching for the Trump rallies and the Democratic National Convention, and he sees that one is going to be in his backyard, now all his actions have come into place.

"I would imagine that some of these things are being assessed as they [FBI] gather this information."

Howard also said it would be no surprise if the FBI eventually revealed Crooks was not politically motivated.

"Let's look at what history has told us about the event we're looking at, and what does the research tell us about that?" Howard said.

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Citing a 1980s research study done by the U.S. Secret Service, Howard said there is no profile of an assassin or attempted assassin.

"You can go from 16-year-old to 60 years old," he said. "And there is rarely mental illness a part of that as well."

Howard said the FBI's behavioral science unit is likely to conduct an indirect personality assessment, which would include interviewing as many people who knew Crooks with a list of standardized questions.

The questions, the expert said, would be focused on Crooks' prior characteristics and traits before he acted out against Trump.

"The methodology there is that you want to make sure that you're asking the same question to the same people so you're getting back the totality of the answers that come together," he said. "They're going to also compare that to the crime scene information that they have and begin a behavioral construction.

"They're going to start to piece together what they think behaviorally about the offender," he added. "Once they get what they believe is the most information they can get, then they start to move into the motivational typology of what they believe motivated this type of individual."

According to the FBI, investigators have gained access to Crooks' cellphone and laptop. Howard said that access to Crooks' phone and computer will be "tremendous" as the investigation unfolds.

"The phone is a closer link to his mind," he said. "If there are pictures, if there are plans, it will be tremendous when it comes to understanding offender behavior.

"There is also geofencing that they are able to track," he said. "I know this is a top priority for the federal government."

Crooks was shot dead by snipers after firing a volley of shots at Trump's rally July 13 at the Butler Farm Show grounds in Butler.

Classmates of Crooks, who graduated from Bethel Park High School in 2022, revealed that the 20-year-old was "quiet" with just a few friends, and he was described as a "loner."

One peer at Bethel Park High School said Crooks was an avid gamer who enjoyed building computers.

While Crooks was a registered Republican, his father was a registered Libertarian and his mother was a Democrat, according to records.

Investigators have yet to pinpoint a motive for the assassination attempt.