Former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley is emerging as Hillary Clinton's strongest competitor among unannounced Democratic presidential hopefuls, the New York Post reported.

Clinton, widely considered her party's front-runner in the 2016 White House race, has been tarnished in recent weeks after she admitted using her personal email account for government business during her four-year term as secretary of State.

If the scandal were to force her out of the competition, O'Malley would be a favorite among New York Democrats, the New York Post said based on an unnamed "prominent" party member.

The source -- "a strong Clinton backer whose views carry considerable weight with party members" -- went as far as to say that her attempts to limit access to her official correspondence were akin to steps taken by President Richard Nixon during the 1970s Watergate scandal. At the same time, the Democrat insisted that the former secretary "hasn't yet been sufficiently damaged to be forced out of the race."

If she were to drop out, though, O'Malley would have the edge over Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren -- who has said repeatedly that she is not interested in a White House bid -- and Vice President Joe Biden, who has openly toyed with joining the race.

"O'Malley is a guy who has always done the right thing politically. He was a team player who made friends with everybody when he was governor. He would do things for people that I think he thought they'd remember him by, and they did," the Democrat said.

"Warren is just too far to the left, sort of in the George McGovern category, and while Biden's own people may be taking him seriously, he's never really been able to catch on."

The former Maryland governor, meanwhile, recently told the Des Moines Register that his children are "psyched" about his presidential ambitions, Bloomberg noted.

But "I guess we wouldn't be sane and rational people if we didn't approach this colossal undertaking without some degree of apprehension and worry about what it means for privacy," he admitted.