(Radio Iowa) – Nearly 50 Iowans who’re Democratic National Convention delegates will soon be called upon to pick a new nominee after President Biden’s exit from the 2024 race. Iowa Democratic Party Rita Hart says she’s sad Biden has stepped aside. “But I recognize that this action means Joe is telling us it’s up to us to finish the job,” Hart said. Hart said it’s unclear when the party will pick a nominee. “I think this is kind of uncharted territory,” Hart told reporters. “…We don’t know what the process will be.”

A panel of national Democrats will meet Friday and is expected to set the guidelines. Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, is one of Iowa’s representatives on the Democratic National Committee. He says it’s unlikely the party would pick someone other than Vice President Kamala Harris.”I think it’s probably at least an 80% chance she will be our nominee,” Brennan says. “…Mechanically I don’t know how else it works, particularly this late in the process.”

Brennan says there’s a huge campaign finance issue that presents itself if Harris isn’t the nominee. “A presidential campaign is like a big ship and so now we’re going to turn a giant ship from having President Biden be on the top of the ticket to likely Vice President Harris, although who knows?” Brennan said. “I’m surprised we are where we are right now.”

Connie Gronstal of Council Bluffs is one of the delegates who’ll be asked to make the decision. She and her husband Mike Gronstal, the former Iowa Senate Majority Leader, hosted an event for Biden in 2007 and she was planning to back Biden in 2024. She says it’s now time to rally behind Vice President Kamala Harris. “She has my full support,” Gronstal said. “Hopefully all this drama is over with now.”

Then-candidate Joe Biden spoke to Radio Iowa on January 25, 2020 before the Iowa Caucuses. (RI file photo)

The Iowa Democratic Party’s chairwoman says she needs to talk with Iowa’s national convention delegates before making any public statement about having Harris as the party’s nominee. “President Biden’s endorsement really matters…She has the experience and he would not endorse her otherwise,” Hart says. “…Our delegates will respond, but it’s so early.” Derek Muller is a national election law expert who left the University of Iowa a year ago to join the law school faculty at Notre Dame.

Muller says because of a ballot deadline in Ohio, Democrats had already been planning for an electronic roll call of delegates to nominate Biden in early August and Muller says the most likely outcome now is a virtual nomination of Harris in the next couple of weeks. “She’ll have to announce a vice presidential nominee by then, I suppose, and then they’ll move forward in business as usual,” Muller says, “except trying to fundraiser and introduce your candidate to the nation in a much shorter time frame.”

Shortly after Biden announced he would no longer seek reelection, several Iowa Republicans in state and federal office said Biden is unfit to continue serving as president. The chairman of the Iowa G-O-P said it was dangerous for Biden to remain in office. Senator Grassley said voters won’t be fooled by Democrats changing horses in midstream, but he did not call on Biden to resign.