I'm surprised that only one person here has mentioned campaign finance as the true issue here -- and they were downvoted. As horsecaptin noted on this thread,

I'm surprised that only one person here has mentioned campaign finance as the true issue here -- and they were downvoted. As horsecaptin noted on this thread, "No one is going to lose an election for not supporting net-neutrality." They do stand to lose serious campaign funding, however. Congressmen and Senators spend a majority of their time raising funds for their campaigns. If it weren't so important to them, they wouldn't. House representatives -- incumbents, no less -- need to raise about $20,000 a week to hold onto their positions, and Senators about $10,000. In 2014, the top four cable providers spent twice as much on campaign "donations" than the top five pharmaceutical companies. I'm not sure about 2016 but imagine it was similar. --- Some links How Much Money Big Cable Gave the Politicians Who Oversee the Internet [2014] http://gizmodo.com/how-much-money-big-cable-gave-the-politicians-who-overs-1657002442 http://gizmodo.com/how-much-money-big-cable-gave-the-politic... House Rep. Pushing To Set Back Online Privacy Rakes In Industry Funds http://www.vocativ.com/415350/house-rep-pushing-to-set-back-online-privacy-rakes-in-industry-funds/ http://www.vocativ.com/415350/house-rep-pushing-to-set-back-... The Campaign Cash That Can Kill the Open Internet [2015] All but two of the 31 co-sponsors of a House bill to kill net neutrality received thousands from telecoms in just the last election. http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-campaign-cash-that-can-kill-the-open-internet http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-campaign-cash-that-can-kill... Half of Anti-Net Neutrality Comments From "Shadowy" Koch Bros. Group http://gizmodo.com/half-of-anti-net-neutrality-comments-came-from-shadowy-1672248771 http://gizmodo.com/half-of-anti-net-neutrality-comments-came... Koch-affiliated astroturfers call Net Neutrality "Marxist" [2014] http://boingboing.net/2014/08/26/koch-affiliated-astroturfers-c.html http://boingboing.net/2014/08/26/koch-affiliated-astroturfer... Vote correlation: Internet privacy resolution and telecom contributions https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/vote-correlation-internet-privacy-res/ https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2017/03/vote-correlation-in... The 265 members of Congress who sold you out to ISPs, and how much it cost to buy them https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15100620/congress-fcc-isp-web-browsing-privacy-fire-sale https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15100620/congress-fcc-isp... Internet Firms Are Far Behind Cable Companies in Political Donations https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/upshot/internet-firms-are-far-behind-cable-companies-in-political-donations.html https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/13/upshot/internet-firms-are... [2014] The Humiliating Fundraising Existence of a Member of Congress [2014] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/the-humiliating-fundraising-existence-of-a-member-of-congress/277227/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/06/the-hum... Are members of Congress becoming telemarketers? http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-are-members-of-congress-becoming-telemarketers/ http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-are-members-of-congre... How much time do politicians spend fundraising? https://www.quora.com/How-much-time-do-politicians-spend-fundraising https://www.quora.com/How-much-time-do-politicians-spend-fun...