James Garfield begged people not to nominate him, and they did. He then spent most of the Presidential campaign at home, and won.

And then proceeded to upset the spoils system of appointing political donors and supporters to jobs, and got shot for his trouble.

Surprisingly fascinating: https://www.amazon.com/Destiny-Republic-Madness-Medicine-Pre...

Candace Millard's book "the destiny of the republic" covers this and is pretty good. Garfield seemed like the type of person who could have done great things in office, given his apparent intelligence and humble upbringing. I also think the journey of his assassin -- a mentally troubled individual with no real reason to target Garfield -- is still relevant given the long US history struggling with this subject.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004J4X33O?_encoding=UTF8