By Todd Spangler and Kathleen Gray

Detroit Free Press staff writers

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders delivered a rousing speech Thursday morning to Michigan Democrats, calling on supporters of his presidential campaign to back Hillary Clinton and crediting them with pushing the party’s platform to a more progressive position.

“All of you know that we have done politics, and we look at politics in a different way than other campaigns do,” said Sanders in a 21-minute speech to delegations to the national convention from Michigan, Minnesota, Tennessee and Oregon. “Real change in America never takes place just by electing a president. It takes place from the bottom up.”

The crowd at the Valley Forge Casino Resort waited for more than an hour for Sanders, of Vermont, to show up, with many in the audience jumping on chairs, snapping photos and bursting into applause when he entered the room. Shouts of “We love you, Bernie!” broke out across the hall.

Sanders’ presence was significant, despite his loss of the Democratic nomination to Clinton, who was set to close out the convention in Philadelphia with a speech Thursday night. Although Sanders has endorsed Clinton, many of his most ardent supporters have been wary to back her and worked to disrupt what had been orchestrated as a show of unity in party breakfasts and on the convention floor.

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Sanders — who won perhaps his most stunning victory by beating Clinton in Michigan’s March 8 primary, despite trailing her in polls by double digits — made the case that his supporters have already moved establishment Democrats to a more progressive position on many issues and must coalesce behind Clinton to defeat Republican nominee Donald Trump.

He called Trump a demagogue and “the most dangerous candidate to run for president in the modern history of this country,” saying statements Trump has made insulting Mexicans, Muslims and others should disqualify him from being president.

Sanders’ primary purpose, however, was to thank his supporters — including younger voters who rallied to his campaign in droves across the U.S. — who he predicted will continue to be a force for change inside the Democratic Party for years to come. He said while his insurgent campaign was waged against the political establishment, it made important gains and helped to write a party platform that recognizes a “grotesque and immoral level of wealth and inequality” in this country.

“We are going to continue to fight for an economy that works for all of our people, not just the 1%,” he said, noting that his campaign helped spur interest in broadening availability of health care and vastly reducing college debt. Invoking the crisis of high levels of lead found in Flint’s water, he said the party platform now calls for spending “hundreds of billions of dollars” to rebuild infrastructure there and across the country.

He also reiterated a broad theme being sounded by both nominees, as well: opposition to trade deals seen as hurting manufacturing and reducing jobs across the industrial Midwest. Sanders said there is “widespread understanding that trade policies in this country have been a failure.”

“You don’t stay prosperous when companies shut down car plants and move to Mexico or wherever they go,” said Sanders. Trump has voiced a similar message — threatening to tear up existing trade deals — as has Clinton, though labor unions against such deals, including the UAW, have largely backed her.

"I’m so glad that he’s endorsed Secretary Clinton," said Lisa DiRado, a Clinton delegate from Northville. “I saw a lot of unity in the convention. Our good friends are for Bernie, and they’re coming over. This is not about all of us. This is about a better America, the day after the election.”

Asked about the divisions that remain between Sanders and Clinton supporters, she acknowledged that some Sanders backers won't be able to vote for her. "That’s OK, too," she said. "We’re a big tent. We just all need to get out and vote. We have local issues to work on. There is so much work to do.”

Jill Dunham, a Sanders delegate from Plainwell, broke into tears after the speech.

"He’s so amazing, and it’s so hard to believe that he’s not going to be our president," she said. "I will accept that we’re going to vote for and campaign for Clinton because Bernie is right, Trump can’t be our president, but it’s still really, really sad.”

Dunham said she felt that, throughout the week, Clinton supporters in the Michigan delegation made it harder than it needed to be for people to still support Sanders. "It was like a horrible civil war all week," she said.

“I feel like, as much as it’s been an emotional roller coaster all week," she said, "we are beginning to bridge the divide and accept the reality. ... I’ve known since June 7th that Bernie wasn’t going to be our nominee. We went through all the stages, and right up until Vermont voted (during the roll call of the states Tuesday night), I was still cheering and then Bernie took the microphone, the tears just started running down my face."

Said James Mitchell of Detroit, a Sanders delegate: "It’s time to put some of the primary divisions aside and go for the overall betterment of the country and to work together for what we believe in.

Mitchell said Sanders “told us to go ahead and work together because the alternative is better with Hillary.”

"It will take time for me" to fully back Clinton, he added. "But I’ll get there."

Contact Todd Spangler: 703-854-8947 or at tspangler@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @tsspangler.