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 298 DAYS UNTIL ELECTION DAY.

AXIOS: DNC CHAIR TO HIT TRUMP ON HEALTH CARE IN BATTLEGROUND STATES TOUR. The DNC kicked off 2020 by launching a tour of the battleground states to discuss Trump’s broken promises on health care. DNC Chair Tom Perez’s first event was in Miami yesterday and we’ll be in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin later this month.

MIAMI HERALD: DNC CHAIR KICKS OFF ‘BATTLEGROUND TOUR’ WITH LATINO-FOCUSED HEALTH CARE TALK. Chair Perez drew the stark contrast between Democrats and Trump on health care at a roundtable in Miami on the first stop of his health care tour. Trump’s health care agenda jeopardizes coverage protections for millions of Floridians with preexisting conditions and coverage gains made by the Latino community under the ACA, while Democrats are working to lower costs and expand access to care. Some highlights from the roundtable from the Miami Herald: 

• “‘As we head into this election cycle, we’re going to be talking about healthcare every single day because it’s the most important issue for so many people here in Florida and across the country,’ said Perez.
• “Healthcare is a top priority for voters, polls show, and is especially relevant in South Florida, where counties lead the state in total sign-ups for health insurance under the ACA, also known as Obamacare. Hialeah, for example, has the highest Obamacare enrollment in the country.
• “The visit kicked off Perez’s tour of battleground states, where he will be meeting with voters to raise concerns over Trump’s approach to healthcare. The planned stops also include states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.”

NEXT STOP: PHILLY. Chair Perez is heading to Philadelphia later this month to discuss Trump’s failed record on health care with voters across the commonwealth. More from the Pennsylvania Capital-Star:

• “In the absence of a coherent Republican counter-narrative, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is launching a tour of key battleground states this month, including Pennsylvania, ‘to raise concerns’ about the Trump White House’s approach — if you can call it that — to healthcare issues.
• “As Axios notes, polling data consistently puts healthcare and healthcare reform at the top of voters’ priorities list for 2020. And as Axios further notes, there’s evidence showing the issue might be Democrats’ greatest strength as primary season truly gets underway.”
• “‘Drug prices are out of control, and millions of Americans are hurting,’ David Mitchell, a cancer patient and the founder of Patients For Affordable Drugs Now, said in a statement. ‘Patients are choosing between filling prescriptions and buying groceries –– and it’s got to stop. We want to thank Rep. Fitzpatrick for standing strong against the pharma lobby and voting ‘Yes’ on H.R. 3.’”

OHIO DEMS GREET TRUMP IN TOLEDO BY HIGHLIGHTING HIS BROKEN PROMISES AND LOST JOBS

• On WTOL:

• Toledo Blade: “Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said there was only one reason for the president to visit Ohio so much during his last campaign and come back to the state to kick off his 2020 campaign. ‘Our state is in play,’ he said. Mr. Pepper was part of a group of Democratic leaders, candidates for office, and local stakeholders who came together mid-morning Thursday for a news conference to highlight what he calls President Trump’s broken promises and failed policies.”

• Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio has fewer jobs today than it did in the year 2000. Currently, job growth in Ohio ranks 39th out of 50 states, according to the Seidman Research Institute at Arizona State University. As in the rest of the state, jobs are down in the Toledo area, dropping 3,000 (0.1%) from November 2018 to November 2019, the latest statistics available from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. Democrats already are pushing back on what they say are Trump’s failed promises. Most frequently cited was his July 2017 advice in Youngstown: ‘Those jobs (that) have left Ohio, they’re coming back. They’re all coming back. Don’t move, don’t sell your house.’”

Michigan Democrats joined in too, and this headline says it all — MLive: Donald Trump tells Toledo crowd Ohio had its ‘best year economically,’ even as the state lost jobs

• The Detroit News: “Lavora Barnes, chairwoman of the Michigan Democratic Party, predicted in a Thursday afternoon interview that Trump would focus on the economy during the rally. While Michigan’s unemployment rate is 4%, Barnes said many people are working two to three jobs to get by. ‘Their future is not going to be the future they hoped for with Donald Trump,’ she said of voters.”

NEVADA DEMS CALL OUT TRUMP FOR HURTING WORKING FAMILIES: As Ivanka Trump, Elaine Chao, and Marc Lotter descended upon Nevada, Democrats called out Trump and his administration for breaking their promises to Nevadans:

• Nevada Independent: “…Democrats quickly panned her appearance. ‘She can’t spin the truth: Donald Trump has been a devastating failure for working families,’ Nevada Democratic Party Executive Director Alana Mounce, said in a statement.”
• Reno Gazette Journal: “Trump’s appearance in Las Vegas Tuesday spurred some partisan backlash in Nevada. Nevada Democratic Party Executive Director Alana Mounce released a statement challenging the administration’s impact on working families. ‘She can’t spin the truth: Donald Trump has been a devastating failure for working families,’ Mounce said. ‘He’s raising our taxes, hiking health care costs, and sabotaging women and families’ prospects for the future. Nevadans saw through Trump’s empty rhetoric three years ago, and we’re going to reject it again on November 3.’”

DNCMKE! NO MATTER WHO OUR NOMINEE IS, DEMOCRATS ARE READY. The DNC held a walk through of the convention center in Milwaukee ahead of the July convention and shared our strategy to win in Wisconsin and across the battlegrounds. 

From the AP: “‘Having the convention in Milwaukee is more than just a ‘great party,’ it’s also an organizing opportunity to reach thousands of volunteers, said David Bergstein, battleground state communications director for the DNC. ‘We can’t take anything for granted,’ Bergstein said. ‘We have to reach out to every possible voter that we can.’”

“TRUMP’S ECONOMY HASN’T LIFTED ALL BOATS” Trump made lots of promises to Pennsylvanians on the campaign trail to boost the economy and make their lives better, but he has failed to deliver. Those broken promises are causing Trump to face headwinds in PA. More in this column in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star: 

• “Trump targeted voters, including many Democrats, in rural and depressed counties, promising to turn those areas around by reviving manufacturing industries. He vowed to reopen steel mills and coal mines, a number of which had been shuttered over the years.

• “While Trump has made some gains in bringing manufacturing back to Pennsylvania, they’ve been small and certainly nothing on the massive scale he talked about during his 2016 campaign.

• “…The bottom line is that Trump won Pennsylvania by only 44,000 votes. He will need the full support of those who backed him in 2016. Any slippage in vote totals could well spell defeat for Trump.”

AMERICAN BUSINESSES AND CONSUMERS ARE STILL PAYING FOR TRUMP’S ERRATIC TRADE POLICIES. Trump promised Americans a booming economy, but his trade deal with China has caused American workers to bear the brunt of his failed policies. From the NYT:

• “American businesses and consumers, not China, are bearing the financial brunt of President Trump’s trade war, new data shows, undermining the president’s assertion that the United States is ‘taxing the hell out of China.’
• “The findings are the latest evidence that voters and American businesses are paying the cost of Mr. Trump’s penchant for using tariffs to try to rewrite the terms of trade in favor of the United States.”
• More here.

NEVADA IS MAKING 2020 CAUCUSES MORE ACCESSIBLE THAN EVER BEFORE. The Nevada Democratic Party announced even more caucus sites on the Las Vegas Strip, making it easier than ever before for casino and hospitality workers to participate in the 2020 caucuses this February. These locations will be open 24 hours a day to ensure that every single eligible voter is able to participate in the process.

**TRUMP’S TRADE POLICIES HAVE PUT FARMERS AT RISK. THE HEADLINES SAY IT ALL**

CNBC: ‘It crushes me’: Dairy farmers struggle to survive Trump’s trade wars and declining milk demand

Yahoo: Farmer: Trump’s $28 billion bailout isn’t worth the trade war

The Herald-Tribune: Florida farmers continue to raise alarms as NAFTA rewrite nears passage

The Daily Advertiser (LA): Despite trade war reprieve, soybean farmers fear irreparable damage, lasting tariffs

DEMOCRATS ARE MAKING ARIZONA A KEY BATTLEGROUND IN 2020.

Democrats are going full-force in Arizona to win in 2020 — while Republicans are “having to work harder.” Read all about it in the AZ Central:

• “An Arizona Republic analysis of precinct-level voting results and registration trends shows both parties making gains, but Democrats turned Republican red precincts purple, while their blue precincts turned deeper blue. 
• “With Trump back on the ballot this year, Democrats think they can build on their winning formula from 2018.

• “Trump’s narrow win in 2016 and the party’s 2018 loss of a Senate seat signaled peril. Republicans are having to work harder because the state is in flux, political experts say.”

WISCONSIN DEMS CHAIR PREVIEWS LINE OF ATTACK AGAINST TRUMP NEXT WEEK:  

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