Author Stephen King’s plea to Texans: Don’t re-elect Ted Cruz

Author Stephen King (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Author Stephen King (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File) Photo: Mark Lennihan, STF / AP Photo: Mark Lennihan, STF / AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Author Stephen King’s plea to Texans: Don’t re-elect Ted Cruz 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

The King of Horror has a request for Texas voters.

Earlier this week Stephen King, the author of novels like “The Shining” and “Cujo,” took to Twitter with a plea for Lone State State residents.

“Hey, Texas! I suppose you're going to re-elect Ted Cruz, but I hope you don't,” King wrote on his Twitter account, which has over 4.8 million followers. “Beto O'Rourke is mega-cool. Smart, too. Also, jeez, do we have to look at Ted for another six years? The mind reels.”

It’s no surprise the longtime Maine resident and part-time Florida resident would line up with O’Rourke, the El Paso Democrat challenging Cruz for re-election to the U.S. Senate. King has a history of taking on Republican candidates for governor in Maine and in Florida and has a history of donating to Democratic candidates. He’s given hundreds of thousands to support presidential campaigns of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.

Cruz fired back this morning with his own Twitter account, calling King a “limousine liberal.”

Limousine liberal @StephenKing preaching socialism (but not his millions!) to Texas is pretty scary, kinda like Carrie riding Cujo, chopping through a door with an ax and saying “heeeeeeeeere’s........Johnny!”

Limousine liberal @StephenKing preaching socialism (but not his millions!) to Texas is pretty scary, kinda like Carrie riding Cujo, chopping through a door with an ax and saying “heeeeeeeeere’s........Johnny!” https://t.co/6iKQ61Fmqd — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 11, 2018

Cruz has been itching to paint O’Rourke as Hollywood-backed liberal because of his support from a handful of actors, TV producers and other celebrities. Earlier in the week, Cruz re-Tweeted an article from Variety about O’Rourke attending a Hollywood fundraiser. And during a series of speeches in Texas last week, Cruz said O’Rourke is promoting immigration policies that were “popular in Hollywood or with Democratic donors,” but “It’s not Texas.”

jeremy.wallace@chron.com

Twitter.com/JeremySWallace