Winning statewide after losing

[JMT]

I thought of this after seeing some comments in the FL-Sen thread. Can you think of examples of candidates who ran for a smaller office and lost, and then ran successfully statewide? One would think it would be harder to win statewide after failing at a smaller office, and this makes sense, but I was curious if there were candidates out there who managed to pull this off. One example I can think of is Maggie Hassan, who lost reelection for her state senate seat in 2010 and then successfully ran for governor two years later.

[JMT]

Does Matt Bevin count?

Sure! We could also bring up examples of candidates who lost statewide then won statewide

[JMT]

He never won or even ran statewide (to my knowledge), but Kerry Bentivolio lost a race for a lower office (Michigan State Senate) in 2010, then won election to Congress in 2012. 

[JMT]

Just thought of another example: Larry Hogan. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress twice (in 1981 and and 1992), then was elected Governor in 2014.