Washington Democrat Patty Murray tried to rally opposition to a newly confirmed federal judge Tuesday night, but called him by the name of The Killers' lead singer instead, drawing instant mockery online.
Murray, who has held her Senate seat since 1993, posted on X shortly after Senate Republicans confirmed Benjamin Flowers to a lifetime appointment on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, the federal appeals court covering Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The problem: Murray called him "Brandon Flowers," the name of the frontman for the alt-rock band behind "Mr. Brightside." The judge's name is Benjamin Flowers.
The Daily Caller reported on the mix-up Wednesday morning. Murray's post had drawn a wave of pointed replies, and the Senate Judiciary Republicans' official X account had already stepped in with a side-by-side correction.
Murray's full post read:
"Today, Senate Republicans gave a lifetime judicial appointment to anti-abortion extremist Brandon Flowers. This man argued to revive an abortion ban that would go into effect before most women even KNOW they're pregnant. Remember this."
Benjamin Flowers, the actual nominee, is a former Ohio Solicitor General and a former law clerk to the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. President Trump appointed him to the Sixth Circuit. Brandon Flowers, the man Murray named, has spent the last two decades singing "Somebody Told Me" in arenas.
The Senate Judiciary Republicans account wasted no time. It posted pictures of both men and offered a dry explanation for anyone "confused" by Murray's post.
"For those confused: Benjamin Flowers (left) is a former Scalia law clerk & state Solicitor General. He's highly-qualified for the lifetime judgeship to which he was just confirmed. Brandon Flowers (right) is the lead vocalist for alt rock band 'The Killers.' Hope this helps!"
The replies piled on from there. One X user, @MattWhitlock, posted simply: "Lolol how have you not deleted this." Another, @BasedSavannah, pointed out that the judge's name appeared on a placard during the confirmation proceedings, meaning Murray or her staff could have checked the spelling before firing off the post.
It is not the first time a Democratic lawmaker's carelessness on social media has handed opponents an easy win. Other Democratic Senate candidates have faced public embarrassment over sloppy posts and online conduct, and the pattern raises a fair question about how seriously these offices vet the statements they put out under a senator's name.
The Daily Caller's report did not indicate whether Murray's office had issued a correction or deleted the post. At least one commenter noted it was still live at the time they replied. Murray's office offered no public statement acknowledging the error, based on available reporting.
Murray's underlying claim, that Benjamin Flowers had "argued to revive an abortion ban", was her own characterization of the judge's legal record. The specifics of which case she referenced and what Flowers actually argued were not detailed in her post or in the reporting on it. The vote count for Flowers's confirmation was also not reported.
Democrats have faced a string of self-inflicted credibility problems in recent months, from campaign finance scandals to candidates struggling to answer basic questions about their own records. Murray's mix-up is smaller in scale, but it lands in the same category: an unforced error that undercuts the seriousness of the argument a lawmaker is trying to make.
Benjamin Flowers, for his part, now holds a lifetime seat on one of the nation's most consequential appellate courts. He clerked for Scalia and served as Ohio's top appellate lawyer. That résumé speaks for itself, and it would have been easy enough for Murray to get his first name right.
Brandon Flowers, the actual rock star, formed The Killers in Los Angeles in 2001. The band's debut album, "Hot Fuss," dropped in 2004 and produced two of the decade's most recognizable singles. Whether Flowers the musician was aware he had been accidentally nominated to the federal bench by a sitting U.S. senator remains unknown.
The episode also fits a broader pattern in which Democrats hand their opponents easy ammunition through avoidable mistakes, and then decline to acknowledge the error quickly or cleanly. A fast correction and a brief acknowledgment would have ended the story Tuesday night. Instead, the post apparently stayed up, and the replies kept coming.
Murray has been in the Senate for more than three decades, having previously served in the Washington State Senate before winning her federal seat in 1993. That length of service makes the sloppiness harder to excuse. A first-term backbencher might get a pass for a late-night typo. A senator with 33 years of experience issuing official statements has a staff, a process, and no reason to confuse a federal judge with a rock vocalist.
Democrats who want to be taken seriously when they challenge judicial nominees might start by learning the nominee's name. Accountability demands basic competence, and Tuesday night, Murray's office failed that test in the most public way possible.
If you can't get the man's first name right, maybe hold off on telling the country to "remember this."
