Sasha Pasulka has never worked on a political campaign.
For the past four years, she’s held product marketing leadership roles at Tableau, a Seattle data software company. But she’s leaving all of that behind to move in with a stranger in Kenosha, Wisconsin and campaign for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
“I’ve never done anything like this before, but it felt like a calling,” she said. “It felt like this is the time. This is the place. This is historic. I want to be a part of it. I feel like this is the most important election of my lifetime and I want to do everything I can do to help her win this election.”
Pasulka first heard that calling eight years ago, when Clinton was battling Barack Obama in the democratic primary. She’d been a Clinton supporter for all of her adult life and pledged that she would quit her job to campaign full-time if Clinton clinched the nomination.
When she lost to Obama, Pasulka tabled the idea. Until now.
Initially, she planned to leave her position as Director of Audience Product Marketing, but Tableau offered her a leave of absence instead. After the campaign is over, she’ll return to Seattle and take on a different role on the same team.
Pasulka’s experience at Tableau makes her a valuable asset to a campaign that prioritizes data. Clinton has assembled what Politico calls “a veritable legion” of technology experts to advise her, in contrast with her 2008 bid where tech was somewhat of an afterthought.
“I think a lot of what Clinton is doing very intelligently, in this election, is leveraging the power of data,” Pasulka said. “I’m personally a huge believer in the power of data. That’s why I joined Tableau initially. So I’m excited to hear that the campaign is using it and I’m excited to go be a part of it.”
The Clinton campaign uses Tableau’s data visualization software heavily, which helped Pasulka land her role in Wisconsin. She says each interviewer she met expressed excitement to have someone from Tableau join the campaign.
“Everyone there says this is such a data-driven campaign,” she said. “So I’m really excited to go be a part of that mission and to leverage the power of data to win an election.”
