Story County Democrats will soon have their candidate for Iowa House District 46.

The seat is vacant following former Rep. Lisa Heddens’ resignation to take a seat on the Story County Board of Supervisors.

The party’s nominating convention will begin 10 a.m. Saturday in the Ames High School cafeteria. Ames City Council At-Large member Amber Corrieri, Ames Community School District Board director Jamet Colton and Iowa State Extension diversity officer Ross Wilburn are seeking the party’s nomination for the district.

As he lost statewide in 2018, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Fred Hubbell won the district by a margin of 65-32; Heddens ran unopposed. Rep. Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, D-Ames, has previously said she expects her party to hold the district.

The special election will be August 6, before most Iowa State students return from summer break. Various Democratic groups and candidates have criticized the decision of Gov. Kim Reynolds to schedule the election while most students are not in the constituency.

“This is an attempt to block the young people at [Iowa State] from voting and making their voices heard. The HD46 special election should be held on a different Tuesday,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., tweeted.

The senator and presidential candidate was “quote-tweeting” a statement issued by the Iowa State College Democrats saying Reynolds “does not value the voices of her alma mater’s current students.”

Eligible delegates who will vote at the convention are precinct committee people from district 46 elected in the 2018 precinct caucuses, or those elected by the county central committee since those caucuses or “alternates as prescribed by the rules,” according to the Story County Democrats website.