Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is one of Vice President Kamala Harris’ top picks for a presidential running mate, and a decision is expected by Tuesday.

Harris has narrowed down her list to two or three candidates, according to national media reports, with the vice president meeting with finalists over the weekend.  Walz, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly, of Arizona, met with Harris on Sunday, the Washington Post and others reported.

Walz would bring his liberal record as governor, experience in Congress as well as small-town Midwestern credentials and his background as a school teacher and his military service to the ticket.

And in recent weeks he’s gained national media attention for going on the attack against Republicans by calling them “weird,” a tactic that’s gained traction among Democrats trying to convince swing voters to come to their side.

What if Walz is picked?

The odds look decent that Minnesota’s governor will join the Democratic presidential ticket.

So if he does, what happens next?

Should Walz run with Harris, he will continue serving as governor through the presidential election. But if Harris defeats former President Donald Trump in November, Walz will have to step down.

If that happens, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would become governor of Minnesota for the rest of Walz’s second four-year term, which ends in January 2027. She would be the first woman and first Native American to hold the state’s highest elected office.

Even if Walz doesn’t get picked as vice president, he’s widely seen as a favorite for a cabinet position in a future Democratic administration. If Harris wins the 2024 presidential election, Walz could end up leaving the governor’s office if he’s asked to lead an executive agency like the Department of Education or Veterans Affairs.

The last Minnesota to serve as vice president was Walter Mondale in President Jimmy Carter’s administration. Before that Hubert Humphrey served with President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Who fills Flanagan’s seat?

With the lieutenant governor’s office open, the Minnesota Constitution calls for the “presiding officer” of the Senate to fill the position.

If that were to happen right now, it would mean Senate President Bobby Joe Champion, a Minneapolis DFLer, would fill the role. He would become Minnesota’s first Black lieutenant governor.

The Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party currently splits control of the Senate 33-33 with Republicans after the June resignation of State Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, who is running for Minnesota’s 3rd Congressional District. However, the Legislature isn’t scheduled to convene until January.

There’s a special election for Morrison’s Senate seat in November on the same day as the general election that will determine who controls the majority in the Minnesota Senate. The rest of the Minnesota Senate isn’t up for election until 2026.

If Champion were to become lieutenant governor and step down from the senate, there would also be a special election for his seat. Democrats likely would regain control as his north Minneapolis district is a safe Democratic stronghold.

Though past transitions haven’t gone quite as smoothly.

Lt. Gov. Michelle Fischbach

In January 2018, then-Gov. Mark Dayton appointed Lt. Gov. Tina Smith to fill former U.S. Sen. Al Franken’s seat after Franken resigned amid a sexual harassment scandal.

The move automatically made Republican Senate President Michelle Fischbach the lieutenant governor.

Fischbach refused to resign from the Senate as it would have ended a slim Republican majority in the chamber. That prompted lawsuits from DFLers, who alleged holding two offices at once violated the state Constitution.

Fischbach refused to take the oath of her new office, and instead called herself “acting lieutenant governor.” But she resigned from the Senate in May following the 2018 legislative session.

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CHICAGO — Five secretaries of state are urging Elon Musk to fix an AI chatbot on the social media platform X, saying in a letter sent Monday that it has spread election misinformation.

The top election officials from Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Washington told Musk that X’s AI chatbot, Grok, produced false information about state ballot deadlines shortly after President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.

While Grok is available only to subscribers to the premium versions of X, the misinformation was shared across multiple social media platforms and reached millions of people, according to the letter. The bogus ballot deadline information from the chatbot also referenced Alabama, Indiana, Ohio and Texas, although their secretaries of state did not sign the letter. Grok continued to repeat the false information for 10 days before it was corrected, the secretaries said.

The letter urged X to immediately fix the chatbot “to ensure voters have accurate information in this critical election year.” That would include directing Grok to send users to CanIVote.org, a voting information website run by the National Association of Secretaries of State, when asked about U.S. elections.

“In this presidential election year, it is critically important that voters get accurate information on how to exercise their right to vote,” Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon said in a statement. “Voters should reach out to their state or local election officials to find out how, when, and where they can vote.”

X did not respond to a request for comment.

Grok debuted last year for X premium and premium plus subscribers and was touted by Musk as a “rebellious” AI chatbot that will answer “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”

Social media platforms have faced mounting scrutiny for their role in spreading misinformation, including about elections. The letter also warned that inaccuracies are to be expected for AI products, especially chatbots such as Grok that are based on large language models.

“As tens of millions of voters in the U.S. seek basic information about voting in this major election year, X has the responsibility to ensure all voters using your platform have access to guidance that reflects true and accurate information about their constitutional right to vote,” the secretaries wrote in the letter.

Since Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and renamed it to X, watchdog groups have raised concerns over a surge in hate speech and misinformation being amplified on the platform, as well as the reduction of content moderation teams, elimination of misinformation features and censoring of journalists critical of Musk.

Experts say the moves represent a regression from progress made by social media platforms attempting to better combat political disinformation after the 2016 U.S. presidential contest and could precipitate a worsening misinformation landscape ahead of this year’s November elections.

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The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Several U.S. personnel were injured in a suspected rocket attack at a military base in Iraq, U.S. defense officials said Monday, in what has been a recent uptick in strikes on American forces by Iranian-backed militias.

The attack comes as tensions across the Middle East are spiking following the killings last week of a senior Hezbollah commander in Lebanon and Hamas’ top political leader in Iran, in suspected Israeli strikes. Both groups are backed by Iran.

The U.S. defense officials said troops at al-Asad air base were still assessing the injuries and damage. Earlier Monday, Iraqi security officials confirmed the attack, but no group has claimed responsibility.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss military operations.

In recent weeks, Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have resumed launching attacks on bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria after a lull of several months, following a strike on a base in Jordan in late January that killed three American soldiers and prompted a series of retaliatory U.S. strikes.

Between October and January, an umbrella group calling itself the Islamic Resistance in Iraq had regularly claimed attacks that it said were in retaliation for Washington’s support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza and were aimed at pushing U.S. troops out of the region.

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Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad contributed to this report.