Clinton holds a 46 percent to 40 percent lead over Christie, Quinnipiac found. | AP Photos 2016 poll: Clinton takes Christie

Hillary Clinton is leading both Chris Christie and Rand Paul in a potential 2016 presidential race, a new poll finds.

Clinton holds a 46 percent to 40 percent lead over the New Jersey governor, according to the Quinnipiac poll out Friday.


The former secretary of state also would beat the Kentucky senator in a head-to-head, the poll found. Clinton led Paul 50 percent to 38 percent.

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Vice President Joe Biden, another Democrat rumored to be in the mix for 2016, didn’t fare as well. Biden was trailing Christie 35 percent to 46 percent and was in a dead heat with Paul at 42 percent.

Part of the explanation may be in the favorability numbers: 55 percent of those surveyed said they viewed Clinton favorably, compared with 38 percent who viewed her unfavorably. Biden, however, was underwater, with 44 percent viewing him unfavorably and 38 percent viewing him favorably.

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Christie was viewed 45 percent favorably to 18 percent unfavorably, and Paul was viewed 31 percent favorably to 28 percent not. Christie, however, was the only candidate that was viewed more favorably than not by members of the opposite party. Forty-one percent of Democrats surveyed viewed him favorably and 19 percent did not.

Quinnipiac surveyed 2,014 registered voters by phone from June 28 to July 8 for the poll, which has an error margin of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.