Vote Run Lead (VRL) Annouces New Chielf Political Officer

Vote Run Lead (VRL), one of the nation’s largest and most diverse training programs for women to run for office and win, announced today it has hired its first chief political officer, Sabrina Shulman, an experienced political and advocacy strategist who has spent years electing public officials committed to women’s equality and social justice. Shulman’s key focus will be the implementation of Vote Run Lead’s RUN/51 project: a sure-fire strategy to transform every state legislature in the country to 51% women’s representation, which was launched in three bellwether states in 2021—New York, Georgia and Minnesota.

Working closely with Vilardi and executive leadership, Shulman will oversee and direct the work of the RUN/51 teams in each state as they act as testing grounds for recruitment, community building, marketing and other activities to build representation of intersectional, anti-racist, feminist women in state legislatures.

Under her leadership, Shulman and the RUN/51 state teams will support relationship building in communities across the states to build a strong pool of women candidates, campaign workers and thought leaders. As part of the executive team, she will also critically support continued development of VRL’s racial and cultural equity competencies and foster an inclusive environment for all who work in, with and alongside VRL.

“Fights over human rights and our civil liberties are happening at the state level—right now, every day,” said Shulman. “I couldn’t miss the opportunity to join Vote Run Lead as the chief political officer overseeing the RUN/51 program to recruit and train the women candidates who will combat efforts to dismantle our rights. We’re working to train and advance intersectional, anti-racist, feminist women elected officials to build the representative  democracy we all deserve.”

Shulman meets VRL’s need for a mission-driven leader with her years of spearheading political and policy wins by threading together multilayered campaign strategies through lobbying, traditional and digital media communications, coalition development and grassroots mobilization. The political powerhouse spent most of the past decade at Brown & Weinraub, a leading government relations firm, serving as a trusted advisor to clients across a broad spectrum of industries, managing complex relationships and initiatives with government officials.

Prior to that enriching experience, Shulman held the role of vice president of political and legislative affairs at NARAL Pro-Choice New York and the National Institute for Reproductive Health. She developed a multi-year strategy to elect a pro-choice majority to the New York State Senate, while acting as a key lead for the campaign to pass New York’s Reproductive Health Act. She also spent a significant portion of her early career acting as the manager of political affairs for Planned Parenthood of New York City, Inc., where she pushed the organization into the political arena by establishing an affiliated 501(c)4 and political committee and founded the first permanent grassroots activist program.

Vote Run Lead trains women to run for office and win. We are a national nonpartisan training powerhouse and recognized leader in women’s political leadership with a network of 55,000 leaders and hundreds of alumni serving as elected and appointed officials. We build strong partnerships with diverse organizations and are committed to training barrier-breaking women to run for office. We envision a country with women as the majority of office holders at every level of government, forging the democracy we deserve. Our mission is to unleash the political power of women as voters, candidates and leaders to create and sustain an equitable democracy.