Sen. Bernie Sanders told a crowd in San Jose Saturday night that he’s the only Democratic presidential candidate who can break the grip America’s top 1 percent has on power because he’s not beholden to their money.

The independent senator from Vermont warned that only modest progressive wins will be possible if the country doesn’t elect a candidate to the White House next year who can challenge big special interests like the health care and fossil fuel industries.

“At the end of the day, the 1 percent is 1 percent,” Sanders said from a stage in Guadalupe River Park near downtown. “In other words, they have the money, they have the power. We have the people.”

Sanders was one of two presidential candidates in the Bay Area for the California Democratic Party convention to hold large public events this weekend — on Friday night, the turnout for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s rally filled a soccer field at Laney College in Oakland.

The crowd at Sanders’ rally, 50 miles south of the convention, appeared to be smaller than Warren’s turnout. But those who showed up made plenty of noise as Sanders went down his list of goals: a national $15 minimum wage; free public college; a Green New Deal that would wean the country from fossil fuels; and abolishing private prisons.

Sanders focused on what he called America’s corrupt health-care system and the “outrageous greed of drug companies” that charge sky-high prices for medicine.

“Health care is a human right, and we are going to bring that right together to the American people,” Sanders said.

Sanders was introduced by a host of celebrities, including actor Danny Glover; professor and activist Cornel West; Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, co-chair of Sanders’ campaign; and Ben Cohen, co-founder of the ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s.

Cohen told the crowd that Sanders would avoid costly foreign conflicts because “Bernie understands that wars don’t solve problems, they create more problems.”

Jennifer Tischer, 43, an elementary-school teacher from Dublin, said she had never attended a political rally before Saturday, or supported a political campaign before Sanders ran for the Democratic nomination in 2016. She said Sanders’ beliefs on social equity have changed all that.

“I work with a lot of underprivileged students in my classroom, and I see how much their families struggle,” Tischer said.

Eileen Hunter, 64, who runs a nonprofit in San Jose, said she appreciates Sanders’ progressive credentials, but hasn’t decided whom to support in California’s March 3 primary. She said she’s torn about whether the Democratic nominee should be a woman.

“I love women, and I want women to succeed,” Hunter said. “But I believe in everything he’s saying.”

Dustin Gardiner is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: dustin.gardiner@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @dustingardiner