Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke will not be coming to the Iowa State Fair or return to the campaign trail this weekend following a mass shooting in his hometown of El Paso, Texas.

O'Rourke, a former Texas U.S. representative, told reporters Wednesday that he is "not even thinking about politics," but does not plan to attend the Iowa State Fair or any other scheduled Iowa events this week.

His Iowa campaign is holding a moment of silence in solidarity with El Paso before Friday's Iowa Democratic Wing Ding in Clear Lake, which more than 20 presidential candidates have announced attending. The campaign invited people from all presidential campaigns to join the vigil.

Twenty-two people were killed in El Paso after a gunman opened fire Saturday in a Walmart.

El Paso Police Chief Gregory K. Allen said the shooting has "a nexus at this point in time to a hate crime," at a news conference Saturday. At least three Mexican citizens were victims in the shooting, but the hate crime allegations are still under investigation.

O'Rourke has called the mass shooting a hate crime and an "act of domestic terrorism directed toward our Latinx community."

O'Rourke has criticized President Donald Trump for inciting hatred against minority communities which lead to mass shootings like the one in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday which left nine dead.

Trump tweeted that O'Rourke should "be quiet!" as he plans to travel to El Paso and Dayton to speak with first-responders and shooting victims Wednesday.

"El Paso will not be quiet and neither will I," O'Rourke responded on Twitter.

O'Rourke was scheduled to speak at the Des Moines Register Political Soapbox at 11:15 a.m. Friday in addition to attending a handful of other events around the first-in-the-nation caucus state over the following days.

The weekend's shootings in El Paso and Dayton changed many Democrats' campaigns. The presidential candidates called for a renewed push for gun control measures and openly blamed Trump's rhetoric and actions for worsening and inspiring violent acts. In Iowa on Wednesday, former Vice President Joe Biden said Trump "has fanned the flames of white supremacy."

Many of the Democratic candidates, in Iowa for the State Fair and other campaign events, will join a "gun safety" forum in Des Moines, hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action.

Biden, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; and U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have said they will attend the quickly organized forum.