Where The 2020 Presidential Candidates Stand On Broadband Issues

Broadband is emerging as a critical campaign issue for the US 2020 presidential election, and there’s good reason: nearly 60 million people in the US do not have broadband service at home. Despite this staggering fact, only four of the 14 presidential candidates we looked at have released fleshed-out policy proposals to expand broadband access (all of them democrats). On the Democratic side, broadband has become a central piece to many rural revitalization plans but as mentioned, only four candidates have released detailed broadband proposals. Sens Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and Mayor Pete Buttigieg (South Bend) have each released “Internet for all” type proposals that aim to connect all US households to the Internet; while some of the other candidates, including Sen Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Andrew Yang, have focused more on digital privacy policies to set them apart from the competition. Out of the five key broadband issues (Digital Inclusion/Closing the Digital Divide, Internet Infrastructure, Net Neutrality, Municipal Broadband, and Digital Privacy), only Sens Warren and Sanders have articulated policy proposal on all five.