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A new poll of the big states with the most influence in picking the next president shows Florida would be a closely fought battleground if Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton are the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees in 2012.

Florida is a dead heat between Bush and Clinton. She is 10 points ahead of Marco Rubio.

The Quinnipiac University Poll released Tuesday showed Democrat Clinton with 44 percent and Republican Bush with 33 percent. In another hypothetical matchup, Clinton has 49 percent to 39 percent for Rubio, Florida's Republican U.S. senator.

The presidential election is 21 months away, and polling this far in advance largely shows name recognition among voters. The candidates who scored best among Florida voters are the names they're most familiar with: Clinton, the former first lady, former U.S. senator and former secretary of state, and Bush, the former Florida governor and son and brother of two other Bush presidents.

It's a similar pattern in the other two big swing states in which Quinnipiac polled: Ohio, where Gov. John Kasich tied Clinton, and Pennsylvania, where Chris Christie, the governor of neighboring state New Jersey performed better than any of the other Republicans polled.

Unlike Florida, Clinton significantly outpolled Bush and Christie in those other two states.

Florida, though, is the biggest prize in the 2016 presidential election because it's the largest state that could go for either party, awarding 29 electoral votes, more than 10 percent of the total needed to win the presidency.

Given Bush's showing, Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac Poll, said Florida was Clinton's "worst state among the three."

OTHER CANDIDATES: While Clinton is tied with Bush in Florida, she is far ahead of the other potential Republican candidates, including 51 percent to 33 percent over Christie, 50 percent to 38 percent over U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, and 51 percent to 34 percent over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

GENDER: Florida women favor Clinton over Bush 50 percent to 41 percent. Men favor Bush 45 percent to 37 percent. Clinton does even better among women when paired against the other possible Republican candidates.

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Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush tied in Florida; Clinton leads Marco Rubio