Author Stephen King endorsed Maine’s Democratic House Speaker Sara Gideon in her campaign to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-MA) in next year’s election, declaring that it is “time” for Collins to leave office.

“It is time for Susan Collins to go,” King said on Tuesday, in response to the news that Sara Gidgeon had announced her intention to run.

It’s time for Susan Collins to go. https://t.co/rs5Rs1Yczb — Stephen King (@StephenKing) June 24, 2019

The 71-year-old author who is a native of the Pine Tree State, has long been active in campaigns to remove their Republican representatives from office having previously endorsed Collins’s 2014 challenger, state Sen. Shenna Bellows (D).

The “Pet Cemetery” scribe was also a vocal critic of former Republican Governor Paul LePage, calling him “a bigot, a homophobe, and a racist” and a “terrible embarrassment to the state I live in and love.”

King’s dislike for Collins, who sits on the more liberal wing of the Republican Party, was cemented last September after she voted in favor of Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. At the time, King suggested voting in favor of Kavanaugh would make Collons’ defeat in 2020 an inevitability.

“IF Susan Collins votes to confirm Kavanaugh, and IF she runs for re-election—two bigs ifs—she will be defeated,” he wrote. “It would be unwise for anyone to mistake how angry most Americans are at the way this is being railroaded through.

https://twitter.com/StephenKing/status/1040985216708435969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Gideon, who announced her bid on Monday, now remains the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for next year’s Senate election.

“Susan Collins has been in the Senate for 22 years. And at one point maybe she was different than some of the folks in Washington, but she doesn’t seem that way anymore,” Gideon said in her launch video. “[Her] vote to put Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court may be paying off for her, but it’s put women’s control of their own health care decisions in extreme jeopardy.”

King, meanwhile, also remains a staunch critic of President Donald Trump. Last December, he described Trump as “rotten to the core” and called on lawmakers to remove him from office.

“Tell your legislators and friends who are Trump supporters that it’s time to put partisanship aside,” the author said at the time. “Trump is a train wreck, and the train he’s pulling is our country. He has to be removed from office.”

Follow Ben Kew on Facebook, Twitter at @ben_kew, or email him at bkew@breitbart.com.