Beto O'Rourke returned to Des Moines on Tuesday for the first time since a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, giving Iowans their first look at a campaign with a heightened focus on curbing gun violence, stymieing domestic terrorism and calling out President Donald Trump.

The former Texas congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate spoke to a full meeting room at Grand View University in Des Moines for an event called "An Iowa Conversation: Standing Up to Trump." During his remarks, O'Rourke highlighted the resilience of his hometown in the aftermath of a shooting that killed 22 people and injured dozens.

As he has since the El Paso shooting, O'Rourke drew a direct connection between the shooting and other recent hate crimes to Trump's rhetoric.

"This president is helping to cause it," O'Rourke said of hate crimes. "He's not the only sole cause of it ... but he's inviting it out into the open, with tragic consequences for all of us."

O'Rourke left the campaign trail and spent nearly two weeks in El Paso in the shooting's aftermath, canceling a slate of scheduled campaign events that included a trip to the Iowa State Fair. He resumed campaigning on Thursday, saying in a speech in El Paso that he plans to focus more on taking the fight to the Republican president.

More: 'I see more clearly than I ever have': Beto O'Rourke reaffirms commitment to presidential run

On Friday, his campaign released a plan to combat white nationalism and gun violence that includes banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and creating dedicated domestic terrorism offices within the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department and the FBI.

"I think it's really important that we tell El Paso's story, connect that to this country's story and help all of us stand up against this together," O'Rourke told reporters Tuesday evening.

O'Rourke said last week he plans to campaign beyond early voting states and travel to places where people's stories are not being heard. Since returning to the campaign trail, O'Rourke has made stops in Mississippi — where immigration officials on Aug. 7 raided seven food processing plants and arrested hundreds believed to be in the country illegally — as well as Arkansas, where he visited a gun show, and Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. He highlighted those visits in Iowa. .

"I think the people of Iowa are interested in hearing what the people of Mississippi and Kansas and Arkansas have to say," he said.

As she waited in line to shake hands with O'Rourke following the Tuesday event, 35-year-old Alison Verschuer of Urbandale said O'Rourke's response to the El Paso shooting was a tipping point in her decision to commit to caucusing for him next year.

"There are candidates who talk about making change, (but) he actually got into the president's face, and actions speak louder than words," she said.

O'Rourke's three-day trip to Iowa will include a half-dozen events, including a Wednesday round table on immigration at Marshalltown's La Carreta Mexican Grill and a Thursday roundtable on gun violence at the Iowa State Capitol.

Ian Richardson covers Ankeny and Altoona for the Register. Reach him at irichardson@registermedia.com, at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at @DMRIanR.

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