In 2016, then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton fell short of her overt goal to become the nation's first woman president when future President Donald Trump stunningly defeated her.

Now eight years later, and undoubtedly still stinging from that loss, Clinton has thrown her support behind the sudden candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris, according to The New York Times.

The question remains, though, of whether Harris will be able to learn from and avoid Clinton's mistakes as she faces off against the same opponent, now-former President Trump, or whether she is doomed to repeat them.

Harris has Clinton's support

According to The Times, Hillary Clinton wasted no time issuing her endorsement of VP Harris almost immediately after she ascended to become the presumptive Democratic nominee following President Joe Biden's decision to end his re-election bid last month.

Clinton and Harris have reportedly grown close over the past four years, and the former is said to be all-in on helping the latter achieve the gender-specific goal of becoming the first female president that eluded her grasp eight years earlier.

That assistance, which culminated in an endorsement speech on the first night of the Democratic National Convention this week in Chicago, has come in the form of personal advice during private dinners as well as by way of numerous veteran campaign operatives who now seek to avenge their 2016 loss with a 2024 victory for Harris.

Trying to avoid repeating Clinton's mistakes

Of course, few can forget the litany of excuses from Clinton and her camp following that 2016 loss, and there has been plenty of analysis of the mistakes her campaign made in that election cycle that contributed to her defeat.

According to The Telegraph, VP Harris and her team are determined to avoid making those same mistakes and, hopefully, avoid suffering a similarly embarrassing loss to former President Trump in November.

One of those mistakes, per the outlet, was the Clinton campaign's overt emphasis on identity politics and gender, given the prospect of becoming the first woman president.

The report dubiously suggested that Harris and her team have downplayed the gender -- and in her case, racial -- identity issue and instead focused on her other purported attributes, such as her experience as a prosecutor and senator before becoming the first female vice president.

Harris ahead in the polls, but not by much

Yet, seemingly unmentioned by The Telegraph as a Clinton campaign mistake that the Harris campaign would be wise to avoid duplicating is the relatively minimal attention the former group paid to vitally important battleground states like Wisconsin and Michigan, among others.

If the polls are anything to go by still more than two months out from the November election, it would seem that Harris is at least partially avoiding that same mistake, as her campaign has focused on those states and currently holds marginal leads there, according to RealClearPolling.

Unfortunately for Harris, while she is currently ahead of Trump by a point or two in Wisconsin and Michigan, she trails him by similar or greater margins in the five other key swing states -- namely Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.

Overall, the RCP national average of polls has Harris up over Trump by 1.5 points, which may prompt some excitement among her supporters but should be viewed in the context of the fact that Clinton, who ultimately lost, had a 5.7-point lead on the same date eight years ago while Biden, who barely won in 2020, held a 7.4-point lead over Trump exactly four years ago.