Bernie Sanders might have thrown his support behind presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at a campaign rally on Tuesday, but some of the Vermont senator’s leading Colorado backers say it’ll take more than his enthusiastic embrace for Clinton to earn their endorsement.

“You have to tip your hat to Sen. Sanders. He could have taken great strides to hurt the Democratic Party, and he did not,” said state Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, a Sanders delegate to this month’s Democratic National Convention. He noted that Jesse Jackson had made a similar point a day earlier. “Now it’s up to the party to do something about it, to bring (Sanders supporters) into the party and give them something to believe in.”

Salazar, who played a key role in marshaling support for Sanders ahead of Colorado’s precinct caucuses and through the state convention, said Clinton has his vote in November, but that’s all she can count on so far.

“If she is the nominee, I will vote for her,” he told The Colorado Statesman after Sanders appeared at a rally in New Hampshire alongside Clinton. “I will not give her my endorsement until I see some moves on some very substantive issues, such as (the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement), and rejecting TPP, getting rid of the super delegate system and fracking. There are some substantive issues that will cause me to withhold my endorsement until those are addressed.”

Salazar said he was “infuriated” by action taken over the weekend by the DNC’s full Platform Committee voting down amendments explicitly opposing the controversial trade deal, noting that “our partners – working people, union people reject the TPP, and our platform needs to reflect that.”

At the rally with Sanders, Clinton vowed to oppose the trade deal, fight to raise the minimum wage and attack campaign finance reform, saying, “These aren’t just my fights. These are Bernie’s fights. These are America’s fights.”

It was a step in the right direction, Salazar acknowledged, but he said that he’s going to need to see action, not just talk.

“There’s always time, even at the convention, to change the platform though amendments and what have you, and I’m waiting to see what happens there,” he said. “I’ll be a big participant in that.”

JoAnn Fujioka, a Sanders delegate and the co-vice chair of the Colorado delegation to the DNC – a Clinton delegate is the other vice chair – said she couldn’t help but feel “the same sort of letdown, if you will, as other Bernie delegates do,” now that her candidate had made it official.

“I feel like he’s doing what he needs to do in order to support Hillary,” she told The Statesman. “We were still carrying with us the hope he would be nominated. This makes it real.”

On Tuesday soon after Sanders had endorsed Clinton, Fujioka wasn’t yet ready to say she’ll vote for Clinton in November.

“That’ll be a decision that I’ll make,” she said, taking a moment to consider her words.

“It’s the issues,” Fujioka said. “I feel strongly, and I know there were many concessions she made in terms of the platform. I really want to believe that, but I still hold with why I supported Bernie to begin with, and still do – there are many changes that need to be made in this country. Rhetoric is easy, but I want to see some meat on that in terms of what that will involve in order for this country to turn around and be really focused on growing the middle-income group.”

Noting that she has concerns whether anyone, even someone as politically adept as Clinton, can accomplish what she believes needs to happen, Fujioka said, “I’m going to be listening very carefully about what those plans are, and I will be very, very rigorous making sure it isn’t just rhetoric, that there’s action behind it.”

The first test, she said, will take place at the convention, which gavels in on July 25 in Philadelphia.

“We have a very, very dedicated and passionate group of people who are real progressives,” she said. “Because many of them are very young, this is the opportunity to see how democracy can work – and should work. I hope the convention demonstrates the party welcomes these young people.”

Another Sanders delegate, Denver Democrat JoyAnn Ruscha, praised her candidate for Tuesday’s endorsement and said she’ll vote for Clinton.

“Sen. Sanders did the right thing. He ran on the Democratic Party ticket. He did not get the required number of delegates for the nomination, so he made good on his promise to make sure Donald Trump doesn’t get elected president. Step one is endorsing Secretary Clinton,” Ruscha said.

She said she thinks it’s important that Sanders delegates get the chance to vote for him at the convention and hopes there’s a roll call vote for the nomination. “I think the delegates deserve to have their vote, but if the senator asks to suspend the roll call, I’m going to respect that,” she said. (A Sanders spokesman said Tuesday that his candidate supports holding a roll call.)

Ruscha said she won’t hesitate to vote for Clinton. “Yes,” she said. “I’m a Democrat.”  She added that she believes there’s a distinction between someone like Sanders, who ran for president as a Democrat, and someone like Salazar and other prominent Sanders supporters who “have a responsibility to stick it out and fight for the issues.”

“Campaigns should be about issues and not a cult of personality,” Ruscha said. “Sen. Sanders ran on a very bold vision, and that’s what it should be about. It’s not about a single candidate.”

It’s a sentiment Salazar also expressed.

“Unity means unifying around principles and ideas, it’s never meant unifying around a person,” he said. “People come and go.”

Salazar said he’d be happy in coming days to rally around specific positions – “If there are events out there that unify us as a party under common principles and ideals, you bet I’m going to be there for that,” he said – but emphasized that that’s what it will take.

“If it’s just about rallying around one person, then, no, I’ve never been about that,” he said.

“I think Sen. Sanders is trying to do the right thing for the country and that’s what he’s always done,” Salazar added, repeating a phrase he used when he endorsed Sanders ahead of the Colorado caucuses in late February. “He legislates and leads from a position of humanity.”

Then he made a point similar to one Sanders had just made on stage with Clinton.

“Because we have the scourge of Donald Trump and the Republicans,” Salazar said, “Sen. Sanders did exactly what was right for America. He’s never done anything for himself – he’s always done what’s right for America.”

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com