Tim Kaine says 'undecided voters' are the reason Clinton's polling has slipped

Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine said on Saturday that Hillary Clinton is the "underdog" heading into Election Day on Tuesday, and that his ticket's recent dip in the polls is linked to undecided voters "returning home" to their respective political parties.

As polls continue to suggest a tightening in the 2016 race between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Virginia senator says he expected such a narrowing to occur as the campaign neared November 8. In an exclusive interview with AOL.com News, Kaine said he views the race's current trajectory as "natural." "We were seeing evidence of tightening about ten to twelve days ago and I think that's kind of natural."

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"It's sort of finishing where I thought it would be—close. I like where we are. I wouldn't trade our spot for the other side's spot," Kaine continued.

Clinton reached nearly a nine-percentage point lead nationally in mid October, according the Real Clear Politics' nation wide polling average. But with just days to go before the country takes to the polls, Trump has surged back to well within the margin of error at 44.9 percent nationally—trailing Clinton's 46.6 percent by only 1.7 percentage points.

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One of the reasons Kaine sees no call for alarm around his ticket's dip in numbers has to do with what he sees as the natural tendency for undecided voters to ultimately return to their "normal place," ideologically. "Undecided voters tend to kind of go home.

"You might have people undecided but they lean Republican or they lean Democratic—they tend to go back to their normal place and I think that's happened."

Watch AOL's full interview with Senator Tim Kaine here:

While undecided voters are often coveted and targeted throughout an election cycle, according to SurveyMonkey's nationwide Election Tracking, the actual percentage of undecided voters left in the United States may in fact be quite low, with just 2 percent of Americans stating they are still unsure if they will vote for Trump, Clinton or a third party candidate.

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With polls tightening and negative headlines piling up in the last few days of the 2016 election, Kaine remembers encouraging Clinton back in 2014 to run for president, telling the then-rumored presidential hopeful to consider herself the "underdog" if she were to run for one specific reason.

"I don't care what a poll says, and I don't care what an editorial says—you are the underdog cause you're trying to make history," said Kaine.

"You got a headwind blowing in your face if you're trying to make history."

BY: WILLIAM STEAKIN, reporting by MORGAN WHITAKER