This is the DNC’s Battleground Brief — a weekly wrap-up of Trump’s broken promises and everything you need to know across the path to 270.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! THERE ARE JUST 305 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY.

WHILE TRUMP WORKS TO AVOID EVANGELICAL DEFLECTIONS IN 2020, CHRISTIAN FAITH LEADERS FROM ACROSS FLORIDA REBUKE HIM. As Trump travels to Miami today to launch his “Evangelicals for Trump” coalition, pastors and faith leaders from across Florida — and across the nation — are continuing to speak out against his disastrous and morally bankrupt agenda.

READ THE OPEN LETTER FROM 13 PASTORS HERE, AND THE KEY POINTS FROM THE FDP’S PRESS CALL WITH FAITH LEADERS HERE. 

Take a look:

Politico: “Ahead of Trump’s Friday appearance, Florida Democrats issued a letter signed by 12 Christian leaders from five Florida counties that appealed to the president: ‘We cannot stand idly by while you attempt to co-opt our religion for your political gain and claim support from our community.’”

Florida Politics: “Doug Pagitt, a pastor and Executive Director of Vote Common Good, added that Trump’s rally was a ‘desperate’ attempt to keep ‘faith voters’ in line and ‘give cover for his broken promises and immoral policies.’”

Palm Beach Post: “Earlier Friday, however, the Florida Democratic Party held a telephonic press conference with three faith leaders who denounced Trump’s behavior and described his efforts to court evangelical voters as disingenuous. ‘Donald Trump is taking advantage of them for his own personal benefit,’ said Chris King, an Orlando businessman and former Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor. ‘I think he shows disdain for believers all across country who want to see a president living the values of the gospels.’”

Bay News 9: “Hours before President Trump is scheduled to speak before thousands of supporters at a South Florida megachurch, faith leaders spoke out on how the president’s behavior and policies are losing him support with the religious community.”

Florida Phoenix: “With the president scheduled to hold an ‘Evangelicals for Trump’ rally at a Miami-Dade County church this evening, Democrat-aligned faith leaders accused Donald Trump of ‘co-opting’ religious leaders to propel his re-election campaign. Chris King, the Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in 2018 and a self-described evangelical Christian, said Trump’s hardline immigration policies, his ‘extraordinary effort to destroy the (federal) Affordable Care Act’ and his economic policies that have favored the wealthy are out of step with faith-based efforts to help the poor and disadvantaged.”

ONCE A SCAMMER ALWAYS A (TAX) SCAMMER. On its two year anniversary, The Hill highlights the realities of Trump’s tax bill and breaks down how it could hurt his campaign in 2020:

• “Two years after President Trump signed his tax cut legislation into law, the measure has not become a runaway hit with the public, posing a potential challenge for his reelection bid as workers say they haven’t seen much of a benefit.”

• “The measure didn’t prevent Republicans from losing their majority in the House in the 2018 midterm elections.”

• “An internal Republican National Committee poll conducted in the lead-up to the midterms found that most voters thought the tax law benefited corporations and wealthy individuals more than the middle class.”

• “Polls consistently found that many people didn’t report seeing bigger paychecks.”

TRUMP IS STEEL BREAKING HIS PROMISES TO HARDWORKING MICHIGAN FAMILIES. MLive reports: “After U.S. Steel announced layoffs the day after Donald Trump’s desperate Battle Creek rally, Michigan Democrats held the failed president accountable for his broken promises to Michigan voters.”

From the report:

• “Michigan Democrats say the idling of a U.S. Steel mill shows President Donald Trump failed to rejuvenate the steel industry as promised.”

• “The Michigan Democratic Party quickly jumped on the news, released the day after Trump declared’ ‘steel is back’ at a campaign rally in Battle Creek. ‘This is yet another devastating broken promise from a president who time and again has left Michigan’s working families behind,’ Michigan Democratic Party spokesman Christian Slater said in a statement.”

• “Trump flipped Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in 2016 while promising to revive the manufacturing industry and bring jobs back to shuttered facilities. Trump told Michigan voters ‘you won’t lose one plant’ during a 2016 rally in Warren.”

ICYMI: ARIZONA IS IN PLAY THIS NOVEMBER — AND WE’RE ALL IN.  The Wall Street Journal is the latest outlet to profile how Democrats are putting Trump on defense in Arizona, from the ground in Desert Hills:

• “Democrats saw gains in all but two of Arizona’s counties in 2018, when Sen. Kyrsten Sinema became the state’s first Democrat elected to the Senate since 1988.”

• “The Democratic National Committee is adding staff and training field organizers months before it did in 2016, aiming to have infrastructure in place for whichever candidate emerges as the nominee.”

• “David Bergstein, a DNC spokesman focused on battleground states, said the party sees an opportunity to contrast Democratic positions on health care and the economy with Mr. Trump’s record in traditionally Republican suburban areas that played a big role in Ms. Sinema’s victory. ‘The result of the 2018 race, and the way voters rejected his record of broken promises on issues like health care and taxes, makes it clear that this is a big liability for him.’”

MUST READ FROM WAPO: IN TRUMP COUNTRY, A SEASON OF NEED ON FAMILY FARMS. The Washington Post took a deep dive into how Trump’s failed policies have caused farmers to suffer and put a greater financial burden on them and their families. Key points:

• “When Anne and her husband, Andy, took over his parents’ 305-acre dairy farm in 2013, they made a good living. But years of falling milk prices, complicated by President Trump’s trade wars, have left the couple nearly $200,000 in debt.”

• “Farmers around the country are struggling to pay for basics like groceries and electricity as farm bankruptcies rise and farm debt hits a record high. Calls from farmers in financial crisis to state mediators have soared by 57 percent since 2015.”

• “‘We’re supposed to be feeding the world, and we can’t even put food on our own table,’ Anne said.”

• “The decline in the dairy industry — driven by global overproduction and a drop in American liquid milk consumption — hit rural New York hard, with the state losing more than 1,100 dairy farms since 2012, according to federal statistics. Then, last year came retaliatory tariffs from Mexico and China on dairy products after Trump-imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum — a $125 million blow to New York’s dairy farmers, according to one state estimate.”

OH DEMOCRATS: TRUMP KEEPS COMING TO OHIO, BUT JOBS KEEP LEAVING.

In response to the upcoming string of travel by Trump — which includes a campaign rally in Ohio, Ohio Democratic Party Executive Director David Pepper released the following statement: “It’s clear why Donald Trump keeps coming back to Ohio — this state is clearly in play for 2020 because of Trump’s broken promises and failed policies.With one day left in the year, 2019 is on track to be the first year since 2009 — the height of the Great Recession — that Ohio has lost jobs. Just last week, the Federal Reserve found that Donald Trump’s disastrous trade policies have resulted in manufacturing job losses, and his trade war by tweet has also hammered Ohio farmers, small businesses and consumers.”

AND DON’T MISS THIS SCATHING COLUMN IN THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH: “HAS ROBUST US ECONOMY BENEFITED WORKING OHIOANS? NO: GROWTH HAS SLOWED, NEW JOBS INFERIOR TO THOSE LOST.” From the column:

• “We know that President Trump inherited a strong economy from his predecessor in office, President Barack Obama, and for a few years that strong economy continued to hum. We are now starting to see signs that Trump’s policies are slowing the economic growth.”

• “There is no greater symbol of Trump’s ineffectiveness than the Mahoning Valley, where General Motors shut down the GM Lordstown plant in which workers had been making vehicles since 1966.”

• “Trump visited workers during the 2016 campaign to reassure them that their jobs would be safe. ‘Don’t move. Don’t sell your house,’ Trump said. At the time, General Motors Lordstown was the largest private sector employer in the area with three shifts totaling more than 4,000 workers churning out GM Chevrolet products.”

• “Fast-forward to 2019 and the GM Lordstown automobile manufacturing plant sits empty.

WISCONSIN DEMS ANSWER TRUMP’S ANNOUNCED VISIT: PEOPLE CAN’T AFFORD FOUR MORE YEARS OF THIS PRESIDENT. “Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler released the following statement in response to Donald Trump’s up coming visit to Milwaukee: ‘After three years of broken promises to hard working Wisconsinites, Donald Trump can’t talk himself out of the pain he’s caused our state. Whether through his trade war that has cost thousands of people their jobs and livelihoods, his refusal to help lower prescription drug costs, or the huge handouts he gave to the rich at the expense of the middle class, Trump has caused irreversible damage to countless Wisconsinites. As the 2020 election approaches, people know they can’t afford four more years of this president.’”

**TRUMP’S BAD HEALTHCARE HEADLINES**

CNN: Battleground states could be hit hard by Obamacare unraveling

VOX: Trump really doesn’t want to talk about his health care record

AP: 3 years in, no sign of Trump’s replacement for Obamacare

STUDY FINDS TRUMP’S TARIFFS “BACKFIRED”:

Make sure to follow the DNC’s War Room (@DNCWarRoom) to get real-time updates on Trump’s abuses of power and broken promises.

Happy Friday!

The DNC Comms Team