Marco Rubio Campaign Touts Endorsement From CTA's Shapiro

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., touted a presidential endorsement from Consumer Technology Association President Gary Shapiro, mentioning the backing in an update on his campaign website Tuesday. Rubio is seeking the GOP nomination for president. Shapiro is “probably a good guy to listen to about who understands how the American economy is changing,” said the Rubio campaign, citing CES, produced annually by CTA. “And guess what? Gary thinks the best candidate in the Presidential field is ... Marco.” The campaign shared the Medium blog post from Shapiro this month outlining his support. Shapiro said he backs Rubio because the Florida Republican “stands up for free-market innovation in a manner that resonates” and he “continues to champion policies that will unleash America’s potential,” including support for high-skilled immigration reform, stopping “patent trolls” and building “the fixed- and mobile-broadband infrastructure on which American consumers and businesses depend.” Shapiro, who has described himself as an independent, endorsed GOP nominee Mitt Romney in the 2012 race won by President Barack Obama (see 1211080036). Rubio’s campaign website showcases in a special section his views on Internet policy. His positions include repealing “President Obama’s Net Neutrality takeover of the Internet, which will hamper innovation and raise costs for Internet users” and building “off unanimous support of a resolution he introduced (adopted unanimously by the U.S. Senate) to fight proposals from foreign governments to gut current multi-stakeholder governance of the Internet.” The section also mentions his goals to reallocate spectrum, backing for a permanent extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act and opposition to the Marketplace Fairness Act.