The Republican National Convention was supposed to be all about President Joe Biden – why the GOP thinks he should go, and why they want to return to a conservative presidency.

But when former president Donald Trump was grazed by a bullet during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, the party changed its tune. Now, it’s all about unity.

Bill O’Brien, New Hampshire’s former speaker of the House, is at the RNC in Milwaukee this week, where Trump’s nomination was made official. The person who fired at the former president was “obviously a crazy person,” O’Brien said, but the attempted assassination caused many Republicans to condemn political violence and call for calm.

“What he’s done is really put us into focus, that no longer is the race just about how bad Biden is, rather the race is about unifying the country,” O’Brien said. “We’re all Americans, and let’s stop calling each other names. Let’s stop calling each other ‘dictator.’ Let’s stop saying we’re threats to democracy.”

The mood at the convention is light and energetic, New Hampshire delegates said. State Rep. Fred Doucette of Salem said the feeling is one of camaraderie. He added that this year’s gathering is much more palpable than 2016’s, where he also served as a Trump delegate.

The GOP’s message of unity is a switch from 2020, when President Joe Biden ran on a promise to unite the country – one that Doucette said the current president didn’t deliver.

“He did nothing but divide America. He did nothing but cause what’s going on right now, this red team-blue team rift,” Doucette said. It’s that division that he believes led to the attempted assassination. “It’s disgusting that we’re at that place in politics – of all things, politics.”

Republicans weren’t the only ones to condemn political violence after the shooting. Each member of New Hampshire’s congressional delegation took to X to condemn political violence and extend their well wishes to the former president, and Biden called for unity once again in an Oval Office address on Sunday. It’s an elusive goal, he said, but one of utmost importance.

“The higher the stakes, the more fervent the passions become,” said Biden, who’s often said the stakes for the upcoming elections couldn’t be higher. “This places an added burden on each of us to ensure that no matter how strong our convictions, we must never descend into violence.”

Zandra Rice Hawkins, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Granite State Progress, echoed these sentiments in a statement on Monday.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans reject political violence and support the notion that in the United States we resolve our differences through the ballot box and peaceful political participation,” said Hawkins, who heads the group’s gun violence prevention arm, GunSense NH. “Violence has no place in our political process and weapons of war have no place in our communities. We all deserve to live in safe communities where we can participate in civic life and our day-to-day activities without fear of gun violence – whether we are running for office or running through a school hallway.”