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On the heels of his strong performance in the Iowa caucuses, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum has moved into second place in the GOP presidential race, according to a new national poll.

The poll, conducted by Rasmussen Reports a day after Mitt Romney won in Iowa by just eight votes, shows the former Massachusetts governor in the lead with 29 percent support, up from 17 percent in a Rasmussen poll released on Dec. 1. Santorum has 21 percent, up from 4 percent in the December poll.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich comes in third with 16 percent. Gingrich led the field with 38 percent support in the December poll. However, a relentless barrage of TV attack ads from Ron Paul's campaign and the super PAC supporting Mitt Romney hobbled Gingrich, and he finished fourth in Tuesday's caucuses.

Paul sits in fourth place in the current Rasmussen poll with 12 percent support. Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman are tied for last place with 4 percent.

Santorum leads the field among "very conservative" voters with 33 percent support. Gingrich comes in second with 25 percent, and Romney has 18 percent. Among "somewhat conservative" voters, however, Romney leads Santorum, 33 percent to 21 percent. Gingrich takes 16 percent of this group.

Among members of the Tea Party, Santorum holds a five-point lead over both Romney and Gingrich. Among voters who say they are not members of the Tea Party, 34 percent back Romney, and 17 percent back Santorum.

Romney also leads among men, women and all age groups surveyed. Santorum comes closest to the front-runner among voters ages 40-64. He has 24 percent support among this group, two points behind Romney.

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