Jeb Bush's announcement that he's "actively exploring" a 2016 presidential run has catapulted him to the head of the GOP presidential pack, a new CNN/ORC poll shows.

Almost a quarter - 23 percent - of Republicans surveyed in the poll picked the former Florida governor as their choice for the GOP nominee in the next presidential election. His closest competitor was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie who came in at 13 percent.

The CNN poll has Dr. Ben Carson in third, followed by Sen. Rand Paul and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

The poll marks the first time one of the possible Republican candidates has separated himself from a crowded pack of contenders. The same can't be said for Democrats, with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton maintaining her commanding lead.

Clinton was the choice of 66 percent of those polled, followed by Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts at 9 percent.

In a head-to-head matchup, the survey showed Bush would fare the best against Clinton, but still trailed him by 13 points. According to the poll, Clinton received 54 percent support to Bush's 41 percent.

The survey was conducted by live interview among 1,011 adults nationwide from Dec. 18-21, with a subsample of 453 Republicans and 469 Democrats.

Let's speculate: What is the 2016 presidential candidates are Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton? Who would you support? Is Bush conservative enough to persuade all Republicans to support him?