Other examples of ascended Some Dudes?

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

William Jennings Bryan was elected in the freak landslide of 1890, and though he had a personal relationship with the chairman of the Nebraska Democratic Chairman he was only on the ballot as a placeholder iirc. Within the next decade he would quickly ascend to become the most popular Democrats in the country who redefined what the party vwoulf stand for.

In the massive Orange Crush (the NDP surge in the 2011 Canadian election, especially in Quebec where  they were once moribund), several university students who were never expected to even be competitive, some of which didn't even campaign, were elected. One candidate, Ruth Ellen Brosseau, was a single mother who was in Last Vegas during the count; and only spoke English despite standing bin a Francophone riding (she speaks French now, and is actually very popular in her riding, even as most of the other random students lost their jobs).