Top Hillary Clinton Staffer Considering Run for Virginia Lieutenant Governor in 2017

A longtime staffer who worked on both of Hillary Clinton's campaigns for president is considering a run for lieutenant governor in Virginia in 2017.

Adam Parkhomenko, a 31-year-old who has long been a resident of Northern Virginia and helped launch the Ready for Hillary PAC long before she announced plans to run in 2016, served as national director of Hillary For America during the campaign. At the age of 17, he collected 42,000 signatures on a petition to get the then-New York senator to run for president in 2008.

But this would be Parkhomenko's first position in public office were he to win, and he would certainly be one of the youngest to serve as a lieutenant governor.

His work with Hillary Clinton appears to have inspired his run, and he recently posted a picture of a letter he received from his "friend" in June 2009, after she fell in the primaries to Barack Obama.

"As I consider a run for Lieutenant Governor of Virginia I look back at this letter from 2009 and am so incredibly inspired by my friend," Parkhomenko wrote.

The letter, signed by Hillary Clinton, says that "Bill and I are so proud of you and the extraordinary campaign your an. ... I hope this setback won't discourage you from future public service to the community you love so deeply, but something tells me I have nothing to fear."

Seven years later, it appears that Parkhomenko is poised to take the plunge.

Image via Flickr user Gage Skidmore