Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has dropped behind former President Donad Trump among betting markets after she underwhelmed in her first sit-down interview since seizing the nomination.
Harris was previously beating Trump by as many as 8.8 points in the RealClearPolicy average of presidential betting markets, but she has fallen slightly behind a week after the disappointing interview.
‘That’s a pretty big communication mistake.’
CNN’s Dana Bash served up some challenging questions for Harris during the brief interview that aired on Thursday, but the vice president often deflected from answering and Bash didn’t pressure her in follow up questions. Harris was also criticized for including her vice presidential candidate, Gov. Tim Walz, in the interview instead of facing Bash alone.
The RCP average puts Trump at a 49.7% chance of winning while Harris is nearly a point behind at 48.8%.
While Harris still remains slightly favored in the RCP presidential average, 48.1% to 46.2%, many poll experts believe Trump underperforms in polling, and historical trends show he overperforms on election day by about 2 percentage points.
Pollster Frank Luntz said Harris would lose a scheduled debate against Trump based on the performance in the interview.
“In the end, the voters are comparing them. It is not a race in a vacuum,” said Luntz on CNBC. “And she did not do what she needed to do to put those concerns to rest, in fact, by focusing on her values rather than our priorities; that’s a pretty big communication mistake.”
The highly anticipated debate between Harris and Trump is scheduled for Tuesday.
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