Elizabeth Warren makes impressive fundraising debut

Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren is off to a quick start when it comes to raising money for her Senate campaign in Massachusetts, with a debut total -- $3.15 million -- that may even out-perform some of the Republican candidates for president.

Warren, who helped set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and is a favorite candidate among progressives, announced the impressive third-quarter haul in an email to her supporters Monday. She said that 96% of the contributions came in donations of $100 or less.

According to numbers compiled by the National Journal’s Hotline, no other Senate candidate -- not even incumbents -- raised as much money in the second quarter as Warren did for the third. Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand of New York was closest, piling up nearly $3.1 million.

“With the big banks and special interests lining up against us, we know it’s going to take a strong, grass-roots campaign to win,” Warren wrote.

Warren will, indeed, need all the money she can raise in what will be one of the marquee Senate contests in 2012. Scott Brown, the Republican incumbent, raised $2 million in the second quarter and had $9.6 million in the bank.

Both will benefit from a flood of out-of-state money. Warren said that more than 11,000 of her contributors were from the Bay State.

Most of the candidates in federal races have not yet announced their fundraising totals from the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30. Of the Republican presidential candidates, only Mitt Romney raised more than $4.5 million in the second quarter.

Slightly more than 70% of Bachmann’s contributions and 50% of Paul’s were in donations of $200 or less.

Kim Geiger contributed to this report.