There's actually a lot of great politicians that most people haven't heard of because they're too boring for our 24/7 news cycle to care about. Walz has just been quietly being an excellent governor to Minnesota, like how Pritzker is doing a pretty good job as governor of Illinois or how Whitmer is doing a pretty good job as governor of Michigan. There's not much of a reason to learn about politicians that don't represent you though, so these kinds of working politicians don't get much attention.
Its because he just seriously did his job. And apparently thats super rare in todays america. He did politics and good policy without it being a media circus. He didn't do it for attention and visibility. No scandals, no media stunts.
This is what politics shoud be. Not that media circus it is in the US with the goal being to have the most headlines and the most press attention not to make good politics.
My boss and coworker were fangirling when Trump 'won' the debate against biden. I've legit seen them do the same thing with sports talk. Nevermind that Trump didn't actually say anything of substance or truthful during all of that. I just didn't acknowledge them.