About Me

Mike has a long history of being an advocate for the most underserved in our community and he plans to continue to do that once elected to Norfolk City Council. 

Mike was born to a Marine family in Jacksonville, NC to a young father and mother that were not able to take care of a young child  sadly quite yet.  As a result he was put in foster care and after a few years was adopted by the Pudhorodsky family. Mike grew up in Charlottesville with a very loving family.  His father was a physician and mother was a physical therapist in the Public Schools, and he has two sisters and one brother.  For the first 11 years of his education Mike attended Charlottesville Public Schools, and then in 10th grade Mike transferred to the Miller School of Albemarle.  While attending the Miller School Mike learned many valuable life lessons, including honor, dignity and respect.   After graduating from Miller, Mike attended Old Dominion University.  While attending ODU Mike fell in love with Norfolk and the Hampton Roads area.  He became involved with some local groups including The Ed Tech Group which helped students in the Hampton Roads area become involved in STEM activities.  After attending ODU Mike went back home to Charlottesville and started working in the Charlottesville school district where he worked at Charlottesville High School with Special Need Children.  While he loved that work, after one year he took a job working with an AIDS Services Group focusing on educating young gay males on how to prevent the spread of HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections.  During this time Mike became politically active in the LGBTQ  community throughout Virginia and started to serve on many different committees including the Domestic Violence Task Force, Virginians for the Alternatives to the Death Penalty, then serving on different committees within the Democratic Party of Virginia.  There were sometimes where Mike faced some legal issues but during those times and after it only made him stronger and a more reliable advocate for the most underserved in our community as he was able to understand what it meant to go through the criminal justice system and then be incarcerated for a period of time.  Mike has worked on several Democratic campaigns over the years including Tim Kaine's Governors run and Senate run, Creigh Deeds State Senate run, Ralph Northam's Lt. Governors and Governors races and others.  He has worked at the General Assembly assisting to pass legislation including Criminal Justice reform legislation, LGBTQI legislation, expanding women's rights to autonomy over their body and working to become the first state in the South to Repeal the Death Penalty.  Mike will bring this type of leadership to Norfolk City Council and will bring this type of coalition building as well.  Currently Mike works in the Hospitality Industry and knows the daily struggle that workers go through in the Hampton Roads area to get to and from work and with housing affordability.