Hammill, who grew up in the small town of Pittsburg in southern Illinois during the Reagan era, remembered asking his mother about the difference between Democrats and Republicans. "Republicans care about guns, and Democrats care about people," she responded.

"I was probably 5 or 6 at that point," Hammill said.

The comment must have had an influence, because by the time he was in college, Hammill had begun interning for southern Illinois Rep. Glenn Poshard (D-Ill.), whom Hammill remembers as very popular in his community. Hammill interned for Poshard for two summers during college and worked on the congressman's unsuccessful 1998 gubernatorial run.

Hammill's work for Poshard translated into Hammill's student life at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. Hammill was involved in the College Democrats and won the election to be student body president in his senior year. Hammill called it "a full-time job."

Hammill didn't confine his political work to the college campus. "Champaign County has a lot of Republican tendencies," Hammill said. "The County Clerk didn't want students to register." The clerk's office tried to keep the mostly-liberal students from registering by failing to provide enough voter registration forms. "We ended up printing our own forms because he wouldn't give us enough," Hammill remembered. Hammill and his team then distributed the registration forms to the thousands of students in the dorms. "We played a big role in getting students out to vote that year," he said.

Hammill graduated from Illinois in 2001 with degrees in both political science and speech communications. He moved to Washington, D.C., where he interned for Poshard's successor, Rep. David Phelps (D-Ill.).

After a year in D.C., Hammill moved to London to study at the London School of Economics. He received a master's degree in comparative politics in 2003.

Climbing Capitol Hill

Hammill returned to Capitol Hill that year, where he had an internship in the press office of another Illinois congressman: Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.). He worked as a press assistant from August 2003 to February 2004, when he was hired as press secretary for Rep. Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.).

Hammill dealt with issues related to Meek's committee assignments on the House Armed Services and Homeland Security panels. Immigration was also an important issue in Meek's Miami-area district.

Then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) named Meek to her "30-Something Working Group," which gave a spotlight to representatives under 40 and was headlined by Meek, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).

Hammill began working daily with the staff of Pelosi's communications office, which at that time consisted of veteran Pelosi aides Brendan Daly and Jennifer Crider.

In August 2006, with Pelosi's star rising, her press office staffed up. Daly tapped Hammill as deputy press secretary and the third on-the-record spokesman for Pelosi, along with Communications Director Daly and Deputy Communications Director Nadeam Elshami. Four months later, Pelosi became speaker of the House.

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