Hillary Clinton beating Republican candidates in presidential election polls

WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 (UPI) -- Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has double-digit leads in presidential election polls against Republican candidates such as U.S. Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., and former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush.

In the Washington Post-ABC News telephone poll conducted between Jan. 12 and 15, Clinton, a Democrat, had a 13 percent lead over Republicans Paul, Bush and N.J. Gov. Chris Christie.

Clinton also had a 17 percent lead over former Gov. Mike Huckabee, R-Ark., and a 15 percent lead over 2012 Republican presidential candidate and former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney.

The polls also found that it makes no difference to 65 percent of people that Clinton is a woman -- one percent had no opinion, but 24 percent were more likely to vote for her because she's female and 10 percent were less likely.

It also made no difference to 62 percent of people that Clinton is the wife of former President Bill Clinton -- one percent had no opinion, but 23 percent were more likely and 14 percent were less likely to vote for her.

The polls were conducted on a random sample of 1,003 adults in the U.S. and have a 3.5 point margin of error.