#ShePersisted

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Part of a series on Elizabeth Warren. [View Related Entries]

About

#ShePersisted is a hashtag used by liberals and feminists to support Senator Elizabeth Warren after United States Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell silenced her Senator "Elizabeth during a debate on confirming Senator Jeff Sessions to the position of United States Attorney General, and defended his action with the quote, “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.” After the quote was published, it became a rallying cry for liberals and feminists, who applied "Nevertheless, she persisted" to other famous women in history.

Origin

On February 7th, 2017, Senator Elizabeth Warren was giving a speech to the Senate arguing against the confirmation of Sessions. As part of her speech, she read a letter^[1] Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King, wrote to Strom Thurmond arguing against the appointing of Sessions to the Federal Court as a judge in 1986. At that moment, Mitch McConnell brought forth an objection that Warren was breaking Rule XIX of the Senate, which barred senators from impugning each other's character. The Senate then voted 49-43 to bar Warren from participating in further debate on the confirmation of Sessions.

When asked later for an explanation about the incident, McConnell said of Warren, “She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”^[3]

Spread

The moment sparked the hashtag #LetLizSpeak^[2] and it was noted how the rule had hardly ever been applied despite numerous cases in recent years when senators impugned each other's character. Warren later took to Facebook to read the letter, where she gained over 2 million views.^[5]

Most notable, however, was the backlash McConnell's tweet inspired from the left, as #ShePersisted^[4] trended on Twitter the following day as people used the hashtag to tweet out feminist statements, often applying the words to other famous women in history who fought against sexism. News outlets covered how McConnell's words were swiftly turning into a feminist rallying cry, including Mashable,^[6] The Daily Dot,^[7] The Washington Post,^[8] Buzzfeed,^[9] and more. The Washington Post^[1] also ran an op-ed suggesting that McConnell had inadvertently provided Warren with a campaign slogan for 2020.