Liberal group out to draft Elizabeth Warren for 2016 race

The liberal group MoveOn.org is ready to spend $1 million to draft Elizabeth Warren into the 2016 presidential race.

MoveOn.org is asking its 8 million members to vote on a campaign aimed at coaxing the Massachusetts senator into the Democratic field.

The vote seems like a formality given Warren's popularity among liberals looking for an alternative to Hillary Rodham Clinton and the organization's own plans, which call for staff in Iowa and New Hampshire, assembling volunteers for a presidential campaign, recruiting small-dollar donors and running ads touting the senator first elected in 2012.

"We'll go all out to encourage Senator Warren to take her vision and track record of fighting tooth-and-nail for working people and the middle class to the White House," said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, in a statement Tuesday announcing the draft effort. "We are prepared to show Senator Warren she has the support she needs to enter -- and win -- the presidential race."

Democracy for America, a liberal group founded by former Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean, has already said it will ask its membership to join the Draft Warren effort begun by MoveOn.org.

Warren has said several times over the past year that she's not interested in running, even declaring in July that there's "no wiggle room" in her stance. But George Zornick of The Nation, who counts himself as a veteran Warren watcher, detected some ambiguity when Warren said "I don't think so" in response to PEOPLE magazine's query in October about whether she'll make a White House run. Warren's staff has said there's no change in her position.

In a poll last month by CNN/ORC International, Warren runs second to Clinton with 10% support among Democrats and independents who lean toward the party. If Clinton weren't in the race, Warren receives 20% support behind 41% for Vice President Biden.