Just a few months into her first U.S. Senate term, Democrat Elizabeth Warren is generating increasing support among liberals as a White House contender — putting her on a potential collision course with presumed front-runner Hillary Clinton.

Warren’s tough stand against the Obama administration’s proposal to potentially cut Social Security benefits has become a lightning rod for progressive groups looking for a more liberal standard bearer in 2016.

“If Elizabeth Warren ran, millions of people would obviously support her candidacy enthusiastically,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, who helped draft Warren to run for U.S. Senate against GOP incumbent Scott Brown.

Green said Warren already has won huge support from progressives for her recent bold questioning of financial regulators who she said are protecting big banks over families. Her rapid opposition to Obama’s proposed cuts only added to her star power.

“If Hillary Clinton or others don’t firmly oppose these cuts, they open up a huge amount of political space for an insurgent to run and win,” Green said.

T. Neil Sroka, communications director for the progressive group Democracy for America, said the group would push for an alternative presidential candidate such as Warren in 2016 if the Democratic candidate supports benefit cuts of any kind.

“Number one, any Democrat that’s open to cuts to Medicaid, Medicare or Social Security is not a good candidate,” he said, adding that Warren “has proven herself in a short time and there is little doubt that in 2016 we’re going to need a leader who is a fighter in that election.”

Warren has said she is focused on being a good senator from Massachusetts and has given no indication she’s thinking about a White House run.

But that hasn’t stopped supporters from jumping on her bandwagon already. An “Elizabeth Warren for President 2016” Facebook page has more than 4,000 likes, and Warren for President T-shirts are on sale.

If Warren did change her mind and consider a White House run, she would no doubt face more tough questions about her claims of American Indian ancestry and her controversial statement last week that her brother was being forced to live on a meager Social Security income.

But Warren’s tough stances also could capture the same type of insurgent liberal support that catapulted former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to an early lead in the 2004 presidential race over then-U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry, before Dean imploded.

Warren has not been afraid of taking on Clinton before — she slammed her in her 2003 book for siding with big banks by voting for a bankruptcy bill in the Senate. And in that same book, “The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle-Class Parents are Going Broke,” Warren also took a jab at another potential 2016 candidate, Vice President Joe Biden, for selling out women by backing the same bill.

Twitterbomb

Campaign advisors have faced off on Twitter before — Republican consultant Eric Fehrnstrom famously sparred with Obama’s advisor David Axelrod during the 2012 race. But staffers for Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate special election Gabriel Gomez and Michael Sullivan have taken the battle to a personal level. Gomez campaign advisor Leonardo Alicivar sniped, “mail vendor who didn’t get Gomez job @StephenCMeyers lives outside MA and now defends @MikeSullivanMA out of state attack ads from extremist.” While Meyers hit back saying, “Man up Lenny. Can’t handle the heat? “@alcivar @MikeSullivanMA AGAIN first to attack. #wbzglobedebate #masen”

Wouldn’t want to be you

Democratic Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey’s new press secretary, Andrew Zucker, had some harsh words for former Senate candidate Martha Coakley. Zucker, in an old blog post, hit Coakley and said she “ran as if she’d already been elected” during the 2010 special Senate election. Ironically, his own boss has been criticized for doing the same thing by scheduling a fundraiser following the April 30 primary.

Moving on up

Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown got a boost from GOP strategist Karl Rove as he dodged making a commitment on a Senate run in New Hampshire. Brown, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” declared that “nothing is on or off the table,” when it comes to running. Rove jumped in to add, “This guy is a ninth generation New Hampshirian … his mother lives there.”