Net neutrality faces its own election challenge in heated midterms

With less than a week to go now before the midterm elections, one of the biggest questions is whether younger voters will show up at the polls. Democrats have seized on network neutrality as an issue to get them to vote. Sen Brian Schatz (D-HI) has said the net neutrality issue could excite and mobilize a sliver of the electorate in a way that's reminiscent of how the National Rifle Association has mobilized voters to passionately protect Second Amendment rights. "It may not be as important to 60 percent of the public," Sen Schatz said in 2017. "But we want it to be really important for 10 or 15 million people. And they will become single-issue voters about the internet. That is an incredibly powerful force. Just ask the NRA."

But even if Democrats see historically large numbers of younger voters turning out in this election, there are skeptics who say it's unlikely the majority of them will be motivated by net neutrality. "While some have claimed that net neutrality will be a defining wedge issue for the 2018 midterms and an effective means to activate millennials, there is little evidence that it will measurably affect votes," said Roslyn Layton, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. "The audience for tech policy is relatively small, though it is growing along with the tech economy."