An early Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday finds former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is trailing three of the top Republican presidential candidates in swing state Colorado.

The poll shows Clinton behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in a hypothetical matchup with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush within the margin of error.

The survey — coming more than 15 months before the 2016 election — is statistically meaningless and appears as an outlier against other national surveys showing Clinton with substantial advantages against her GOP rivals.

The poll didn’t look at which Republican or Democratic candidate Colorado voters favor in the party’s respective primaries.

But it still sparked political potshots as Republicans used it to suggest Clinton is in trouble and Democrats highlighted problems in the methodology, saying it under-sampled the party’s voters, particularly Latinos.

It’s not the first time a Quinnipiac poll faced questions about its Colorado numbers.

In late summer 2014, the Connecticut school showed Gov. John Hickenlooper losing to his Republican rival by 10 percentage points, even though other polls showed him ahead 2 points. Hickenlooper won by 3 points.

The latest poll surveyed 1,231 Colorado voters from July 9-20 with a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points.

The biggest margin between Clinton and the three GOP candidates was with Walker, the poll says, who leads Clinton with a 47-38 margin. The poll showed Rubio leading Clinton 46-38 and Bush leading Clinton 41-36.

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Democratic candidate who recently visited Denver, runs as well as, or better than Clinton against Rubio, Bush and Walker, according to the poll.

Colorado voters, the poll also says, find Clinton — considered the top Democratic candidate — has strong leadership qualities and cares about voters needs and problems, but is not honest and trustworthy.

“She has lost ground in the horse race and on key questions about her honesty and leadership,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the poll, said in a statement. “On being a strong leader, a key metric in presidential campaigns, she has dropped four to 10 points depending on the state and she is barely above 50 percent in each of the three states.”

The poll found Bush has a negative favorability in Colorado, though voters find him honest and trustworthy and that he has strong leadership values. Voters also said they feel like he does not care about their needs and problems.

Rubio was given a positive favorability rating in Colorado, with voters finding that he is honest and trustworthy, has strong leadership qualities and cares about voters’ needs and problems.

“Hillary Clinton’s numbers on honesty and trust may border on abysmal, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, the GOP front runner, is still battling a name recognition handicap,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the poll, said in a news release.

“The door is open to a GOP candidate voters can believe in,” Malloy added of the Colorado race.

The poll also questioned voters in Iowa and Virginia, two other swing states.

Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul

Staff writer John Frank contributed to this report.