Trump’s convention is powerful to Republican core, but does it reach beyond?

Donald Trump can only hope there are lots of Peggy Masts out there.

A Kansas state lawmaker from Emporia, Mast came to the 2016 Republican National Convention more than a little skeptical about the sharp-elbowed Trump.

A Ted Cruz delegate who deems character as key, Mast leaves town a committed Trump voter, convinced that he is surrounding himself with quality people who can “take this country in the right direction.”

On Thursday night, Trump aimed to go far beyond hard-core Republicans such as Mast and start the process of winning over that vast swath of independents who will pick the winner of the 2016 election.

The way he ditched conventional wisdom, old school tactics and polite language blew establishment Republican pols out of the water. The test of his convention, and his campaign chugging forward, could turn on whether his decidedly Trumpian brand of politics can play well to a broader electorate.

In an acceptance speech written in part by the Trump offspring who made numerous appearances on the main convention stage this week, the nominee ranged from more condemnation of Hillary Clinton to the need to cut taxes to a call for a safer and more secure America.

“I have a message for all of you: The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end,” Trump told an adoring convention crowd. “Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored.”

Trump, who so often has shunned a teleprompter, read almost word for word from a prepared text and yelled throughout much of the address. When delegates began chanting one of the trademark chants of the week — “Lock her up!” — Trump uncharacteristically discouraged it by saying, “No, beat her in November.”

Bold promises — a hallmark of Trump’s campaign — included a pledge that on the day he takes the oath of office “Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.”

In another passage, about trade, Trump pledged to use his business acumen that he said had made him “billions of dollars” to make America “rich again.”

The speech, though, was short on specifics, an issue that has brought him ongoing criticism.

In the next few days, the nation will learn just how much of a bounce — if any — Trump pulled from this four-day extravaganza. New polls will be conducted. Fundraisers will determine whether the money people think Trump’s campaign is now a cause worth backing.

If Trump’s financial coffers swell, that will be a sign Cleveland made a difference. But Trump approached even that challenge in the most unconventional way, telling a crowd of top donors on Thursday that had he run as an independent, he could have defeated any GOP contender, Politico reported.

Even Republicans with misgivings about this most unconventional of candidates, and his campaign, will be inclined to prefer him to the Democratic alternative.

“So many of us not on the Trump bandwagon had to put our big-boy pants on,” said Cruz delegate Derek Kreifels, who works in Mission. “We can either support Trump or allow Hillary Clinton … to come in.”

Analysts walked away unsure how the controlled chaos that defined so much of the past week will play with voters. They said the convention was often disjointed, ill-timed and even surprisingly tepid during much of its first two nights.

Yet while Trump’s oft-noted spontaneity can leave careful planning in ruins, it hasn’t slowed the man who glided past 16 other candidates for the nomination.

“Maybe somewhere in the Trump playbook, this all makes sense,” said University of Kansas political scientist Patrick Miller.

But critics had a field day. The last shot of the never-Trump movement flared during an opening day rules fight. Melania Trump left an otherwise widely praised speech that same evening only to face accusations of plagiarism. A soap opera star closed out the convention Tuesday night.

In perhaps the convention’s most dramatic moment, Ted Cruz pointedly did not endorse Trump in his high-profile speech Wednesday. That underscored just how many top Republicans have walked away from Trump — unconvinced that he’s the stuff that makes for a good president.

“There were so many missed opportunities,” said Washburn University political scientist Bob Beatty, who attended the convention. “It could’ve been, to quote Trump, a ‘great convention.’ I just don’t think it was.”

Beatty and others said “tepid” described the convention’s first two nights of D-list celebrities and often hundreds of empty seats. During those nights, vocal eruptions from the delegates were rare and maneuvering around the convention floor was a breeze. At past conventions, human traffic jams tied people up for 10, 15 or even 30 minutes.

Not in Cleveland.

Still, as Peggy Mast demonstrated, the party arguably leaves Cleveland in better shape than it arrived.

Expecting near-total unity was unrealistic, said Stephen Maynard Caliendo, a political scientist at North Central College in Naperville, Ill., given the deep divisions that plagued the party coming into the convention.

Besides Cruz, several others — former presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, most notably — refused to endorse Trump.

In fact, no GOP convention going back to 1988 featured so many delegates committed to candidates other than the eventual nominee. Fully 744 delegates at this gathering backed non-Trump contenders. In 2012, just 199 delegates backed Republicans other than Mitt Romney.

“Donald Trump’s campaign said we didn’t get this far by following the usual script,” said Caliendo. “It could turn out that Donald Trump was right.”

This story was originally published July 21, 2016 at 10:36 PM with the headline "Trump’s convention is powerful to Republican core, but does it reach beyond?."