Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks passionately on the first night of the Democratic National Convention on July 25, 2016. Her potential run at the presidency in 2020 has already drawn the attention of GOP foes. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) speaks passionately on the first night of the Democratic National Convention on July 25, 2016. Her potential run at the presidency in 2020 has already drawn the attention of GOP foes. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times/TNS)

Boston — Republicans are getting a jump on Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign.

The Massachusetts Democrat is preparing to run for re-election to the Senate in 2018 and hasn’t said yet whether she’ll challenge President Donald Trump for the White House. But in-state and national Republican officials have decided to target the liberal icon anyway, saying they will try to inflict enough damage during the Senate race to harm any future presidential effort — and perhaps dissuade her from running altogether.

Already, one national Republican group has begun a comprehensive effort to track Warren’s every public appearance and add to a dossier of unflattering research on her. Other GOP officials predict that even in deep-blue Massachusetts, the senator’s opponents could raise gobs of money from conservatives nationwide and even benefit from the attention of Trump.

The goal is more about weakening Warren than defeating her: Republicans doubt that any of their party’s likely candidates could topple her next year. But even with the next presidential election more than three years away, they say exposing her weaknesses now — or making sure her race is closer than expected — could do lasting damage.

“We learned from our experience with Secretary (Hillary) Clinton that when you start earlier, the narratives have more time to sink in and resonate with the electorate,” said Colin Reed, executive director of Republican outside group America Rising.

Reed’s group launched an effort in April to catalog and promote Warren’s mistakes, announcing that it would try to defeat the senator during next year’s race.

Republicans say that’s only the beginning.

“Despite the long odds to win a Senate seat in a blue state like Massachusetts, there’s a great deal of interest in Elizabeth Warren’s seat,” said Ryan Williams, who served as a longtime aide to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and has deep ties to New England Republican politics. “No. 1, she’s universally hated by conservatives, and No. 2, she’s viewed as a potential 2020 candidate, and there’s an interest in taking her down a peg before she puts together even an exploratory effort for 2020.”