Gov. Tim Walz is in Michigan on Thursday campaigning alongside Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential ticket continues barnstorming through swing states.

It’s only been two days since Harris chose Walz as her running mate and it may seem like his rise to the Democratic ticket happened in the blink of an eye. But as a new story in the New York Times tells it, there’s been a quiet, subterranean effort, started more than a year ago, where Walz and his aides to build his national profile — and they were successful thanks to a combination of careful strategy, luck and “Minnesota Nice.”

Walz was and has been demure about his political plans, until now. So to get a better understanding about his team's strategy, we wanted to talk to one of the New York Times reporters about the story out Thursday. Reid Epstein wrote and reported the story with his colleagues and he joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer to explain.