Salinas >> Except for a couple of years when she switched to the Green Party, Mary Hsia-Coron has always been a Democrat. But her affiliation never went further than the ballot box. Rather than being involved in party politics, she concentrated her efforts on environmental issues.

A retired technical educator for Hewlett-Packard, Hsia-Coron helped run an environmental summer camp in San Juan Bautista for seven years and was involved with an anti-fracking initiative in San Benito County that won by popular vote in 2014.

“I found that the Democratic Party is not that progressive,” she said. “I was in the Green Party for a little while, but I decided to come back to the Democrats to vote for Bernie.”

But Bernie Sanders didn’t get the Democratic nomination for president, and to many who supported the senator from Vermont, that’s why Donald Trump will be sworn in as commander in chief in less than a week. And it’s also the reason why hundreds of “Berniecrats” like Hsia-Coron turned out in droves recently to elect progressive Democrats to the lead the party.

“I was a Bernie delegate in the national convention, we were treated like we were traitors,” said Mike Thaller, chair of the Democratic Party progressive caucus. “We were not welcome into the party, and those very people turned around and went, ‘OK, we’re gonna change things for the better.’ ”

The Democratic primaries left a bitter taste in the mouths of many Sanders supporters who believed the election was rigged in favor of Hillary Clinton. The controversy was fueled by leaked emails that showed there was constant communication between Clinton’s campaign staff and the Democratic National Committee.

The frustration has become activism. Sanders supporters all over California were mobilized by emails and text messages to participate in recent Delegate Assembly District elections. Turnout for these caucuses was twice what it has been in recent years all over California. There were also twice as many people running for the seats. And even though final results have not been tallied, unofficial results point to progressive slates winning in many, if not most, of the 80 Assembly districts.

That’s what happened in Assembly Districts 29 and 30, which encompass most of Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties.

In AD 30, Sanders supporters joined Measure Z volunteers and formed the “progressive, labor, anti-fracking” coalition.

But the group didn’t have enough time to put together a full slate of candidates — seven men and seven women — so they joined forces with Anna Caballero, who recently returned to the Assembly. While the group includes several people who have never held office or can be considered political insiders, such as Dominic Dursa and Hsia-Coron, the slate also included seasoned politicians such a former Salinas City Councilwoman Jyl Lutes and Watsonville City Councilman Jimmy Dutra.

“We want to see change,” said Dutra. “Over the last few years, we’ve seen a very stagnant party locally and at the federal level as well. I want to see change and start working on things that are important to people. I’m nervous with election of the new president, we’re going to be compromising many important things to us as Democrats.”

Dutra and several others say they want to fight for immigration reform, health care, the environment, minimum wage and several other issues that have been traditionally associated with the party.

Along with increased participation, most districts around the state report a level of enthusiasm not seen in years — and younger, more diverse faces.

“It’s a new generation of activists who insist social issues are addressed and economic issues are addressed, and having new people who represent a new community is the way a party needs to grow and needs to rebuild itself,” said Glen Schaller, who convened elections for AB 29. “The average age of participants is much younger than before and there’s an increased participation of people of color and LGBT folks; it’s what needs to happen and it’s happening.”

The new elected delegates will join the rest of California’s Democratic Party machinery in May for the state convention, where they’ll elect leaders and test the strength of the Sanders movement. Insiders, however, say the differences among the factions are not that big.

“We’ll have a number of new faces, but when you come to our convention we have groups that share the same values,” said Michael Soller, communications director for the California Democratic Party. “When you look at the Democratic Party, we have some of the most progressive issues, and this new energy shares our values.”

Still, Sanders supporters want to see the party change.

“We’re concerned about the environment and we want a progressive Democratic party to address it,” Hsia-Coron said. “Some of us want to have a living wage, more affordable education for young people — that was a promise that Obama made but never kept. Single-payer health care. We can help set a more progressive agenda and elect more progressive leaders in the California Democratic Party. And once we do that, we can elect more progressive Democrats for Congress. An effective way to respond to a Trump presidency is to have a Democratic Party that has a strong vision in California.”

Claudia Meléndez Salinas can be reached at 831-726-4370.