The bumpiest social media moments of the 2020 campaign so far

We're only just getting over our 2018 midterms hangover, and now the 2020 presidential race is upon us.

That means any number of candidates are starting to hit the campaign trail — and some are already misfiring on all cylinders. From here on out, every single move candidates make will be scrutinized to the fullest extent that the grinding internet news cycle will allow.

Some of the bumbles are minor, but there are others that could hint at further trouble ahead. Here, then, are a few examples of early missteps from candidates who are either already in on the race or are flirting awfully heavily with the idea.

Elizabeth Warren's cold beer and hot takes

It seems silly that a sitting U.S. Senator would be criticized over her choice of beer, but this is America in 2019. Nothing is safe. So when Sen. Warren followed up her initial 2020 announcement with an Instagram live involving beer, you knew it was gonna make somebody mad.

Sure, Warren is trying to be relatable for the young voters to whom authenticity is incredibly important. There's even a cameo from her dog! But some of her detractors, including Fox News, were quick to take issue with either her choice of beer (Michelob Ultra) or her attempt to be, well, genuine.

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Warren's already up against it after her controversial claims of Native American heritage, so she's got a tight line to walk. Voters won't give her much flexibility, whether it's her policies or her choice of beer.

Beto's trip to the dentist

Like Warren's beer, this little blip for Beto O'Rourke gets filed under "Why?"

Beto, you may have heard, is at the center of speculation over a potential 2020 bid after his 2018 loss to Ted Cruz for a Texas Senate seat. He hasn't officially entered the race, but he's definitely acting like a guy who's interested in running.

In other words, he's Instagramming everything. Specifically, he shared a January 10, 2019, trip to the dentist's office on Instagram Live. The reactions ranged from adoration to, well, "Why?"

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If Beto has one thing going for him, it's that many fans have already gotten used to his oversharing, be it on Instagram or Snapchat, where he often sends videos of himself talking to the camera while driving or chatting with Oprah.

If anything, it's possible Beto could suffer from overexposure — and he hasn't even announced he's running. Yet.

Howard Schultz gets roasted over candidacy

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz thought he had the big ideas necessary to bridge the political divide in the U.S., but, oh boy, did he learn the hard way that Americans are tired of white billionaires trying to solve everyone's problems.

When Schultz announced he was exploring running for president as a centrist back in late January, he was met with a meager round of applause — and an avalanche of backlash, from people mocking his moderate position to liberals worried he'd siphon off votes from a Democratic candidate.

His initial tweet about running got ratioed pretty quickly and his subsequent tweets have suffered a similar fate.

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Perhaps the reaction to Schultz was best captured by this heckler's yells at the former coffee magnate during an interview:

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It's only going to get wilder from here.

Bernie's backlash

Sen. Bernie Sanders has yet to even announce he's running in 2020, but it seems like a foregone conclusion. And he's got a stack of problems to solve, even before he's officially in the race.

Sanders has already had to apologize to several women who worked on his 2016 campaign who were sexually harassed by other campaign workers. Things got even more awkward ahead of Trump's State of the Union speech, when Sanders announced he was doing a rebuttal separate from the official Democratic one being given by Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams.

Sanders, who endorsed Abrams in the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018, faced backlash from many who saw his separate response as an attempt to take the spotlight away from Abrams.

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2019 was the third straight year Sanders has done his own response. It didn't stream on social media until after Abrams was done, but the bad feelings lingered. (It's worth noting that fellow senator and 2020 candidate Kamala Harris also did a State Of The Union-related appearance, but streamed hers before Trump's speech.)

As popular as he is, Bernie may be treading on thin ice after this move. He'll have to do some delicate maneuvering to avoid alienating voters looking at a crowded field.

Cory Booker loves Hot Pockets

One of the biggest criticisms of Sen. Cory Booker points to the gobs of money he's received from Wall Street and big pharma companies. It's possible that microwavable food for stoners and college students will soon be added to the list of nefarious connections for Booker after this tweet, sent shortly after he announced his candidacy for president.

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Cory Booker has already tweeted about Hot Pockets because, well, it was a whole story back when he was mayor of Newark, New Jersey, in 2012. As Newark (and the rest of the North Atlantic Coast) recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, Booker tweeted moral support to a resident who really missed having Hot Pockets.

Hot Pockets responded by giving Booker's constituents coupons for free Hot Pockets, a microwave miracle.

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So the fact that he gave Hot Pockets a shout-out upon making his presidential announcement could be seen as a cute bookend to the story of Booker's rise. But Booker's in the big leagues now, and any interaction with #brands on Twitter can lead to swift and sudden retribution from an audience that's ready to pounce on something that even hints at being inauthentic.

Sure enough, people on Twitter were already using this Hot Pockets tweet as a chance to take shots at Booker.

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And it's only going to get tougher for Booker from here.

Kirsten Gillibrand's fundraising tweet

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is already finding out that being a presidential candidate brings a lot more scrutiny, no matter how small your transgression may be. For instance, she recently experienced her first food-related road bump when she seemed to show she didn't know how to eat fried chicken.

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More problematic, however, was a now-deleted tweet that Gillibrand's twitter account sent out which showed a GIF of her yawning during President Trump's State of the Union speech with the message, "Agree? Chip in $5 so we can put an end to this."

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Whoops. That appears to be a violation of U.S. House rules, as flagged by journalists.

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It's highly unlikely this was Gillibrand's intent, hence its quick deletion. More likely, it was a mistake made while trying to quickly leverage a viral social media moment, something that pretty much everyone is doing and, as this list has shown, not exactly nailing.

Perhaps at her next social media workshop, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez can go a bit deeper into the "what not to do" category.