Supporters of Warren 2016 bid gather in Iowa City

IOWA CITY - Cold weather may have kept some people away from a 'Ready for Warren” house party in Iowa City last night, but support for a presidential bid by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is heating up.

A handful of Warren supporters gathered at Veronica Tessler's home to discuss how to convince Warren, a first-term Democrat, to enter the race for the party's 2016 presidential nomination. Ready for Warren planned a similar house party in Des Moines.

Tessler, an Iowa City business owner, said the draft Warren movement may have started as a 'crazy idea” that may not have been taken seriously, 'but it's gained traction every week.”

That's despite Warren repeatedly saying that she isn't running for president. Supporters point out she uses the present tense to describe her candidate status. They hope that means she can be convinced to change her mind in the future.

Even if she runs and doesn't win the Democratic nomination, supporters say, Warren will force the party - and presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton - to embrace progressive ideals.

'She's definitely not your standard politician,” Tessler said, but when she heard about the effort to draft the first-term Massachusetts Democrat 'I immediately got behind it.”

Given Warren's career as a lawyer fighting Wall Street bankers 'and others taking advantage of the system and efforts to level the playing field and give power back to the people, I think that's what's driving her growing popularity,” said Tessler, who backed Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic caucuses, but hasn't been active since then.

The supporters watched a video about Warren, which led to a discussion of her progressive, according to Tessler's mother, Barbara, who was visiting from California.

'There's still conversation going on,” she said, 'and then they will write postcards urging her to run for president.”

The supporters who braved the weather Wednesday evening may been the hardiest of Warren's supporters, Barbara Tessler said.

'She heard from more than twice that many who said they were interested in coming,” she said.

Regardless of the number who braved below zero temperatures, Veronica Tessler hoped that in addition to sending a message to Warren, the house party would help get people excited about the 2016 presidential race. Warren supporters also are planning a day of action Jan. 31, a year before the date of Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses.

'It's important that we have our best candidate,” she said. 'We don't want this to be the inevitable.”

If nothing else, the Warren effort will encourage more people to get involved 'and that will make the party stronger,” Tessler said.

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