Harris has momentum — but she's 'underperforming' compared to Clinton and Biden: analyst

As media pundits agree Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has momentum at the moment, a Washington Post analyst noted Wednesday that she's "underperforming" when compared to where Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden were at this point in their campaigns.

"Two things are true," wrote Philip Bump on Wednesday afternoon.

One is that Democrats at the state and national levels have seen improved polling since President Joe Biden dropped out and Harris took over the ticket.

But it's also true, he noted, she trails the two most recent Democratic presidential candidates in key polls.

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"... support for both candidates generally increased as the election got closer," Bump said, pointing to a chart. However, he said, "the Democratic candidates had much wider margins in 2016 and 2020 than in 2012. (In each election, the Democratic candidate earned more votes nationally, twice passing 50 percent. The Republican candidates never reached 48 percent.)"

All of this, he said, leads to another "critically important" — and unanswerable — question: will Harris' recent bump continue into the election?

"We can say with certainty, though, that the two truths with which this article began remain true," he said. "The Democratic position is much better than it was a month ago, but it’s not better than it was four years ago."

Click here to read the full analysis by The Washington Post.