Ranking 2020 Presidential Candidates's 404 Pages
Ever since President Obama injected technology into presidential politics in a historic way, one of the few bright spots of the incredibly long and exhausting race for me has been inspecting each candidate's campaign website. They end up revealing a great deal about how much each of them is willing to invest in the internet, and how young and innovative (and potentially funny) the staff members they attract are.
More recently, though, little-known hidden Easter eggs on "404 Not Found" pages have become an outlet for the candidates' overworked web designers to let out some humor in a sea of otherwise serious policy pages. Below are the 404 pages on each of the current candidate's websites, along with my ranking of them β setting politics aside, for once.
1. Elizabeth Warren β elizabethwarren.com
I'm a huge sucker for Kate McKinnon's spot-on impression of Warren on Saturday Night Live. And unfortunately, seeing a campaign embrace SNL is like a breath of fresh air these days. Watch all of the Kate McWarren videos so far here; you won't regret it.
2. Bernie Sanders β berniesanders.com
Although the designer who selected this GIF likely had thousands of choices when searching "Bernie finger wagging GIF," the text beside it is well-written and funny β even though we both know putting a page at berniesanders.com/zxcliaosid probably won't be a top priority of a President Sanders.
3. Joe Biden β joebiden.com
Uncle Joe has a nice and simple 404 page. I like it, along with the Ray-Bans and his choice of vanilla ice cream.
4. Beto O'Rourke β betoorourke.com
A ballsy move, considering Beto's infamous DUI arrest in the '90s β but still a clever ask for a donation and a great use of a GIF, even if it's left over from his Senate campaign.
5. Kamala Harris β kamalaharris.org
Another clean and simple page with a top-notch GIF. It injected some emotion into visiting kamalaharris.com/alskdjf.
6. Pete Buttigeg β peteforamerica.com
I love, love, love Pete's design for his whole campaign, and his beautiful 404 page is no exception. In case you didn't know, Pete for America has an entire "Design Toolkit" publicly available for all to view and use, with really cool and in-depth explanations for all of their choices β even their color palette. Very progressive indeed.
7. Cory Booker β corybooker.com
Love the photo choice. But although pains me to go against my Senator from my home state, I still cannot stand his choice of font. Oh well, I guess that's now a criterion for running for president in 2020.
8. Andrew Yang β yang2020.com
Not sure if donating to Yang 2020 will help put a page at yang2020.com/alsdjfzoif β the actual URL I visited to grab this screenshot β but the Bitmoji Andrew looks pretty chill.
9. Amy Klobuchar β amyklobuchar.com
This is the 404 page of someone who won't forget the Midwestern roots she comes from once she moves into the White House...or writes a memoir about her campaign from her Minnesota home.
10. Steve Bullock β stevebullock.com
I'll never publicly say anything against a good Dad joke. This is no exception.
11. Michael Bennet β michaelbennet.com
Another quality Dad joke here.
12. John Delaney β johndelaney.com
Yet another Dad joke? I honestly had the hardest time ranking these three.
13. Marianne Williamson β marianne2020.com
A 404 page only a motivational author and speaker running for president could envision.
14. The Donald β donaldjtrump.com
I guess this would be slightly humorous...four years ago. Time to move on from your middle-school crush, Donny.
Disqualified Candidates...
These candidates haven't configured a custom 404 page, settling for the default Drupal or WordPress text. Do they really think they can run the free world with their websites in this shape? π </s>