President Joe Biden dropped out of his reelection bid Sunday, leaving Ohio’s delegates free to vote for whomever they wish for as the Democratic nominee.

But more realistically, Democrats will coalesce around a pick in the coming weeks. Biden is backing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him as the Democrats’ presidential nominee. Harris would have certain advantages over other contenders, including access to campaign coffers and her name on the primary ballots.

More: Joe Biden drops out of 2024 race and endorses Kamala Harris: Live updates

“Technically, (delegates) are allowed to support whom they wish, but in reality, it’s probably not going to work out that way,” said state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, the Ohio Democratic Party’s rules guru.

How many delegates does Ohio have?

Democrats have more than 3,900 pledged delegates and 749 automatic delegates, often called superdelegates. Ohio has 127 pledged delegates, who vote for president in the first round, and 16 “superdelegates.”

Biden won 3,896 delegates during the Democratic primaries.

Do Ohio delegates have to vote for Biden?

No. Biden won Ohio’s Democratic presidential nomination on March 19, but delegates are not required to vote for him after he dropped out.

“Biden is out. There might be some people who still decide to vote for Biden, but they are not mandated to vote for anybody,” DeMora said.

More: With Biden out, what does it mean for the ballot in Ohio?

What is an open convention?

An open convention occurs when no candidate has secured the majority of the pledged delegates to win on the first vote. Democrats face that reality now.

Biden’s endorsement of Harris could go a long way for Democrats in Ohio and elsewhere, but other presidential contenders can make their pitch to delegates.

If Harris could coalesce support quickly, Democrats could proceed with a virtual roll call vote they planned, in part, to ensure their pick made the Ohio ballot. But that scenario seems less and less likely.

Democrats told the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau Sunday that they expect to pick a nominee at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago between Aug. 19 and Aug. 22.

Who are Ohio’s Democratic delegates?

Ohio’s delegates range from the party’s top politicians, such as Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and the state’s five Democratic members of Congress, to teachers, union members, high school students and more.

Out of the state’s 143 delegates, at least 90 are attending their first convention, according to the Ohio Democratic Party. More than 80 were picked with district-level elections of fellow Democrats.

The full list of delegates is here.

Jessie Balmert is a political reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

As Oregon continues to climb the recruiting polls, more talented prospects are set to visit Dan Lanning and his staff in Eugene, Oregon. Class of 2026 Ohio State commit Chris Henry Jr. Will visit Oregon on July 27.

Henry has been committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes since July 28, 2023, but he is still exploring other Power Five programs. LSU and Oregon have been working to flip the young standout’s commitment.

He will visit both Oregon and LSU in July.

The five-star recruit is the No. 1 prospect and one of only nine five-stars in the 2026 recruiting class, according to ESPN.  

Excellence runs in Henry’s family. His father, Chris Henry Sr. played in the NFL for four years. Drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2005, Henry Sr. showcased tremendous talent with his speed, athletic ability, and strong hands. However, his career was scarred by off-field incidents and legal troubles, leading to multiple suspensions and a tragic death in 2009.  

Now, Henry Jr. is looking to continue his father’s legacy. The 6-6, 200-pound receiver posted 71 receptions for 1,127 yards and ten touchdowns during his sophomore season at Withrow High School. Henry will continue his high school career in California, following his decision to transfer to Mater Dei in January, where he will compete alongside and against a higher caliber of talent than he’s ever faced.   

Mater Dei boasts some of the nation’s top prospects, including Oregon commit Nasir Wyatt, Penn State commit Daryus Dixson, Alabama commit Chuck McDonald III, and plenty more.   

“It’s a day and night difference for Chris,” Mater Dei wide receivers coach James Griffin said. “The kid has everything. He’s just like his dad. He’s working his butt off to be elite like that every day.”   

Henry is not only practicing alongside some of the nation’s top prospects at his new high school, but he is also running routes with NFL players to improve his game further. G.O.A.T Farm Sports shared a video on social media of Henry running routes with Pittsburgh Steelers’ George Pickens, Tennessee Titans’ Calvin Ridley, and Atlanta Falcons’ Kyle Pitts  

“He would start at every college in America right now, and he still has two years remaining in high school,” Henry’s father’s former teammate T.J. Houshmandzadeh said. “That’s how legit he is.”   

Henry’s athletic ability and his relentless work ethic make him a target for many programs around the country. Could his visit to Oregon be enough to flip his commitment from Ohio State? 

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s story of overcoming personal hardship was one of the reasons former President Donald Trump tapped him to become his running mate, with the hope people in the midwestern battleground states, including Michigan, would relate to him.

Although the 39-year-old Ohio senator’s nomination acceptance speech last week at the Republican National Convention was peppered with quips at Michigan, particularly regarding football, Michigan Republicans do not appear to mind.

“It’s all fun and games,” Jill Kindig, a Brighton, Michigan, resident, told the Washington Examiner on Saturday outside Trump’s rally in Grand Rapids, his first since last week’s assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania and Vance’s first as a vice presidential candidate.

“They have that joke all the time,” Sierra Ackerman, an Ohio resident who came to Michigan for the event, said outside Van Andel Arena downtown.

“That’s been going on for years on top of years,” David Martinez, a Muskegon, Michigan, resident, added. “I’ve got relatives that played for Ohio State. I’ve got a granddaughter at Michigan, I’ve got a granddaughter and daughter at Michigan State. So it doesn’t matter. Come on, you know, we’re American, we’ve got to have that rivalry in football.”

Most of Vance’s banter is based on the football rivalry between the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University.

“I heard some ‘O-H’s but I’m going to respect Michigan and not respond here,” Vance told the crowd during one of his two appearances onstage. “To my Ohio brethren: Guys, we’ve got to win Michigan. That’s the most important thing this election cycle.”

Michigan’s importance to the 2024 election was underscored by aides choosing it as Vance’s first rally as the Republican vice presidential nominee. For President Joe Biden, or whoever might replace him as the Democratic presidential nominee, the so-called “blue wall” of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, where last week’s convention was, will be crucial to securing 270 Electoral College votes in November. That is where polling is still within the margin of error between Biden and Trump, compared to the other battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, and even Nevada, which has not supported a Republican in a presidential election since then-President George W. Bush in 2004, where the GOP nominee is ahead. Biden’s campaign has also described the blue wall as his “clearest path” back to the White House.

Trump has a 1.7-percentage-point lead on Biden in Michigan, according to RealClearPolitics‘s aggregation of head-to-head polling, with Trump’s advantages over Biden in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin widening since their debate and Democratic calls for the president to step aside as the party’s nominee. Biden’s standing in Michigan had earlier been jeopardized by his response to the Israel–Hamas war in the Gaza Strip because of the state’s large Arab American and Muslim communities.

David Cohen, a politics professor at the University of Akron in Ohio, reiterated that Trump had picked Vance to campaign in the Midwest, amplifying the former president’s message of economic populism and social conservatism — policy positions that helped him crack the blue wall in 2016 against then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“Though Ohio is not a battleground state this year, Ohio’s neighbors of Michigan and Pennsylvania are — and they are perhaps the two most critical swing states in 2024,” Cohen told the Washington Examiner. “Vance’s story plays well in these places — particularly in the rural, blue-collar areas of the Midwest.

“It is interesting that he played up the Ohio-Michigan rivalry at the RNC convention,” he said. “I’d be surprised if he talked about his graduating from the Ohio State University while in Michigan — I’m pretty sure that would not go over well with the crowd.”

During his convention address, Vance joked that the Ohio delegates needed to “chill with the Ohio love here.”

“We’ve got to win Michigan too,” he said. “… We’ve had enough political violence.”

But Vance Patrick, the Republican Party chairman in Oakland County, Michigan, who started a counter-“Let’s Go Blue” chant on behalf of the University of Michigan, dismissed the idea the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry will undermine the senator in the Great Lake State, contending that he is “absolutely” an asset in the Midwest.

“The Michigan and Ohio delegates laughed, shook hands, and hugged after the chant,” Patrick told the Washington Examiner. “This also blew up a UoM Twitter feed, again in a good, national unity way.”

For a second Michigan Republican strategist, Vance improves the foundation on which the Trump campaign can “build an even bigger stronghold in the entire region,” given Ohio’s closeness in geography and culture to Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

“Those are must-win states and, in addition to his loyalty to the former president, J.D. knows exactly how to speak to voters in those critical states,” the strategist told the Washington Examiner. “[That is] further evidenced by their choice of Michigan as the site of their first post-convention, post-nomination rally.

“Midwest voters have been suffering under relentless inflation and coastal elites don’t recognize that,” the strategist continued. “J.D. is acutely aware of that, as well as the failures of the Biden-Harris administration, such as East Palestine,” Ohio, the site of last year’s toxic train derailment, which Biden did not travel to until this March, attracting criticism from Republicans.

Vance was raised by his grandparents in Middletown, Ohio, amid his family’s encounters with addiction and abuse before he enlisted in the Marine Corps after high school in 2003 and deployed to Iraq as a war correspondent in 2005. Vance then enrolled at Ohio State before graduating summa cum laude in two years in 2009.

Vance went on to attend Yale Law School and worked for Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), Judge David Bunning, law firm Sidley Austin, and investment firms funded by the likes of AOL co-founder Steve Case and Case’s PayPal counterpart, Peter Thiel, after he graduated in 2013. He met his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, with whom he shares three children, there when they were both students. Vance wrote the 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, which recounts his experiences.

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“It’s still a little bit weird to see my name on those signs,” Vance said Saturday. “Such an honor, such an incredible honor. You think about how I grew up, and you think about nobody in my immediate family had ever gone to college, and here I am getting to represent this ticket in the great state of Michigan, getting an opportunity to earn your vote as the next vice president of the United States. What a great country this is.”

Vance’s first solo rally will be Monday in Middletown.