Poll: Clinton leads top 2016 GOP challengers

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton leads three potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders in a new poll.

In the new Quinnipiac poll of registered voters nationwide, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) fares the best against Clinton, taking 37 percent support to her 45 percent support.

But against the other two potential Republican candidates tested, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Clinton takes double-digit leads, with 50 percent support to Ryan's 38 percent support and 50 percent to Rubio's 34 percent.

Clinton is reportedly considering running in 2016, and Democrats say that if she jumped in the race, she'd likely clear the field.

But a handful of other Democrats, including Vice President Biden and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, are also considering a run.

Quinnipiac tested both Biden and Cuomo against the three Republicans, neither of whom are able to topple Christie.

The New Jersey governor leads Biden by 3 percentage points, with 43 percent support to Biden's 40 percent support, while Biden has the same edge against Ryan, with 45 percent support to Ryan's 42 percent. Biden leads Rubio by 7 percentage points.

And Christie takes a double-digit lead over Cuomo, who seems to suffer from a lack of name recognition, as he holds the highest percentage of undecided respondents in his match-ups. Ryan, too, leads Cuomo, by 5 percentage points, while Rubio ties him, both with 37 percent support.

Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,944 registered voters nationwide from Feb. 27 to March 4, and the poll has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

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