FROM the start, Bernie Sanders has insisted that his bid for president is more than just a bid for president. “This campaign is not about electing Bernie Sanders for president,” the campaign tweeted in August. “It is about creating a grass-roots political movement in this country.”

By that measure, the test of the “political revolution” Mr. Sanders has started won’t just be the strength of his primary challenge, but also whether his movement can survive without him and help get other candidates elected.

Melissa Stevens, 33, hopes that it can. She is a Sanders supporter, a single mother of two and a first-time candidate for the Maine statehouse who frequently talks about struggling to support her family while working low-wage jobs. “A lot of these big ideas and these big revolutions happen at a local and state level first,” she said.

Ms. Stevens is part of a broader network of progressive activists who say that the movement that has coalesced around Mr. Sanders can bring change to state and local governments around the country, regardless of what happens with his presidential bid.