Chris Christie on Hillary Clinton's Heels in New Poll

Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is riding high after his big re-election win last week and a poll released Monday shows he would be a formidable presidential candidate for Republicans come 2016.

Rasmussen Reports released a poll of likely voters on Monday which shows 43 percent backing former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, with Christie right on her heels with 41 percent.

Despite some conservative discontent with Christie, the New Jersey governor gets the support of 73 percent of Republicans while Clinton can count on the backing of 77 percent of Democrats. Christie holds a solid lead with voters outside the two major parties, taking 42 percent of them, while 33 percent back Clinton.

The poll of 1,000 likely voters was taken from Nov. 7-8 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.