Happy Labor Day! With 57 days to Election Day 2020, here's the news that you'll want to know:

(1) the argument for "the media are lying about the election again"

(2) new poll shows Joe Biden's lead in Texas has "evaporated," Pres. Trump up by 2 points

(3) Kamala Harris makes her first campaign trip as VP pick; VP Pence also on the road today

Strong piece from The Federalist: "The media are lying about the election again"

"After having botched the entire news coverage of the 2016 election, where all the 'experts' repeatedly told the American public that Donald Trump had little to no chance of being the Republican nominee and even less a chance of being elected president, corporate media are back at it again, insisting all is well with the Biden campaign and the Democrats are safely on cruise control to take the White House and the Senate. " (The Federalist)

• What's happening: This piece from Mollie Hemingway at The Federalist is a strong case -- going through updated polling from multiple states -- for why the mainstream media's "conventional wisdom" that Democrats will cruise to victory in November is likely not true.

Check out her full analysis here. The best summation, aside from the quote above: "This race is effectively tied today, Trump has momentum, and Biden is going to have to campaign hard, energize his voters, and earn it if he hopes to unseat the incumbent."

• What's at stake: Well, the 2020 election of course. Absentee voting will start in some states as early as next week, so the election truly is here.

We'd also say ... look for hard-hitting coverage against President Trump from now until November. (We know, we know. It's been four years of it already!) If President Trump is pulling even, as he seems to be, the media will go all-out with negative coverage.

Over this holiday weekend, there was even an anonymously-sourced piece in The Atlantic that has since been refuted by Trump staff on the record. (One piece from the Daily Wire explains how here.) We expect more of this to come, first weekly and then daily.

And this isn't new for the mainstream media either. 

A recent study from the Media Research Center found 150 times more negative coverage about President Trump than Joe Biden. Check out the overview of the report here.

New poll: Biden's lead in Texas has "evaporated." President Trump is now in the lead.

"Trump is now leading Biden among likely voters, 48 to 46 percent, according to the poll from The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Tyler. Biden had been leading Trump among likely Texas voters by 5 points in early July in a similar poll." (The Hill)

• What's happening: A five-point lead for Joe Biden has become a two-point lead for President Trump in Texas. It's from a recent poll that ended last Wednesday, so it reflects the latest news events (both conventions and the candidate visits to Kenosha, Wisconsin).

• What's at stake: Although many Americans think of Texas as a deep red (i.e. heavily Republican) state, it's a "competitive" state in the 2020 election, as Roll Call termed it. That means it's not a toss-up like a swing state; but it's a close race.

That's why it's even better news for President Trump's campaign that he's now leading.

Plus, it's part of a broader trend in the presidential race tightening, as Mollie Hemingway summarized here for The Federalist (and above in The Vote!).

Both VP candidates are out on the campaign trail in Wisconsin today.

"The dual appearances by Pence and Harris come just days after President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden were in Kenosha two days apart. Wisconsin is one of a few swing states that Trump won by less than a percentage point in 2016." (ABC News)

• What's happening: Despite fear of and changes due to COVID-19, both Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic VP pick Kamala Harris are on the campaign trail today -- and both are in Wisconsin. This is Harris' first campaign visit as the VP pick; she had campaigned previously for her own presidential campaign.

• What's at stake: The Trump campaign has been traveling, so the real news item is that Team Biden is hitting the campaign trail, too.

The travel effort seems like catch-up to President Trump and VP Pence. During the Republican convention, Democrats had expressed concerns that Biden wasn't on the trail. In response, his campaign pledged to start traveling Labor Day weekend.

Biden's "basement campaign" has now become a running theme in the 2020 election.