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A new national poll shows former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with a commanding 21-point lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential race.

Gingrich garners 38 percent support to Romney's 17 percent, according to the Rasmussen Reports poll released Thursday. Gingrich has gained 24 points since Rasmussen's previous national poll, released in early November. Romney has slipped six points from 23 percent.

The rest of the field sits far behind the current front-runners. Businessman Herman Cain and Texas Rep. Ron Paul have 8 percent support while Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum tie with 4 percent. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman has 3 percent support.

Gingrich holds a 44-11 advantage over Romney among "very conservative" voters and a 43-19 advantage among "somewhat conservative" voters. He leads Romney, 47 percent to 10 percent, among those who consider themselves members of the Tea Party. He also tops Romney among all age groups. Among voters 65 years or older, he leads by 53 percent to 21 percent. Among voters ages 40-64, he leads by 39 percent to 18 percent. And among those ages 18-39 Gingrich leads with 20 percent while Paul comes in a close second with 16 percent. Romney has 12 percent support among these voters.

Gingrich garners 41 percent support from male voters. Romney comes in second with 14 percent. Among female voters, Gingrich's lead is 13 points, 34 percent to 21 percent.

The Rasmussen poll comes on the heels of several polls showing the former speaker with sizable leads in Iowa, South Carolina and Florida. A Rasmussen Reports poll released Tuesday showed Gingrich creeping up on Romney in the former Massachusetts governor's stronghold of New Hampshire.

Though Romney has largely avoided attacking Gingrich up until now, he's likely to reassess his strategy moving forward. In a Fox News interview Tuesday night, he called Gingrich a "lifelong politician." For his part, Gingrich has insisted that he is "a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney and a lot more electable than anybody else."

Rasmussen Reports surveyed 1,000 likely voters on Wednesday. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.