Former governor of VA, left office with a 70% approval rating. Went on to win the Senate seat there in '08 by a sizable margin (roughly 2:1). Genuine self-made rich person (first guy in his family to go to college and was one of the initial investors/founders of Nextel).

There was the possibility that he might have run in '08, but his daughters were of an age where he didn't want to expose them to the campaign scrutiny. That's no longer an issue.

I'm not being hyperbolic in saying that his example is pretty much entirely why Kaine got elected governor in '06 (along with Webb for Senate), and didn't play a small part in Obama's election in '08. If he ran for the Presidency, Virginia would be an outright lock - there's not even an in-state Republican politician who could challenge him there.