Stephen King’s political roots go back to his days at the University of Maine, where he raised hell in the late ’60s as an anti-Vietnam War activist, when he was just embarking on a writing career that would make him one of the world’s best-read novelists.
“There was a time when we did have (the ability to change the nation) in our hands, when we literally came maybe within a month, three marches, four demonstrations, three more wrong moves by the idiotic Nixon and Johnson administrations of changing this country and turning it on its ear,” said Stephen King, now 67, in October 2001 to an audience at the University of Maine.
From the ’60s, the outspoken King said his activism quickly progressed: He boycotted grapes at Bangor supermarkets to support migrant farmworkers and sat in at a campus building where napalm-producing Dow Chemical was holding job interviews.
In doing so, he shed his Republican roots: He had supported Maine Gov. John Reed and 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.
His long hair and anti-war views shocked his conservative family.
“I think the impact of the activism can be overrated,” King said. “To my mind, a lot of people – even the people involved in the anti-war movement – moved to the center in politics later on.”
King surely hasn’t.
And now – thanks to the financial success of novels such as “The Shining” and “The Stand” and movies based on his books – he’s become a big Democratic donor.
Since January 2013, King has contributed $60,700 to Maine and federal politics, including $32,400 to the Democratic National Committee and $10,000 each to the Maine Democratic Party and the Senate Democratic State Committee.
In the past decade, he’s given, from his Maine address, $693,685 to federal and state races, including $380,000 to the Maine Democratic Party and $124,000 to the DNC, according to the National Institute for Money in State Politics. (He has also made contributions from a New York address that have not been calculated in these totals.)
He’s shelled out money on issues ranging from same-sex marriage to tax reform, including $10,000 to support the 2012 legalization of same-sex marriage in Maine and $50,000 to No Higher Taxes for Maine PAC in 2010, which opposed repealing a Democratic tax reform package.
King actively supports Maine Democratic candidates. He’s autographed copies of his famous novels as a fundraiser for gubernatorial candidate Michael Michaud and has given tens of thousands to the political committees supporting candidates such as U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and Michaud.
King backs Democratic senatorial candidate Shenna Bellows. In a recent TV campaign ad he calls her a “breath of fresh air” for her support of the working class.
“She grew up one of them, in Hancock County, as I did down in Androscoggin, where my first job was for minimum wage in the Worumbo Mill dyehouse in Lisbon Falls,” wrote King in an Oct. 21 op-ed that ran in the Portland Press Herald.
The outspoken King has received national attention for his diatribes against Republicans.
At a 2004 rally for then vice-presidential candidate John Edwards, he called the Bush administration “the most dangerous and unpleasant bunch we’ve had since the Nixon years.”
At a 2011 rally in Florida, King asked why rich guys like him aren’t taxed more and compared three Republican governors – Paul LePage, Rick Scott, of Florida, and Scott Walker, of Wisconsin, to “Larry, Moe, and Curly,” the Three Stooges, the BDN reported.
“Now you might say, what are you doing up there? Aren’t you rich? The answer is, ‘Thank God, yes.’ Because I grew up poor,” he said. “And you know what, as a rich person I pay 28 percent tax. What I want to ask you is, why am I not paying 50?”
King attended grammar school in Durham, Lisbon Falls High School and graduated from the University of Maine at Orono with an English degree. King sold his first short story, “The Glass Floor” in 1967, and worked from 1971 to 1973 as a high school English teacher at Hampden Academy.
Since then he has published 55 novels, selling 350 million copies. Many became successful films. While known as a genre writer, he has also been recognized for his overall contribution to American letters with a lifetime achievement award by the National Book Foundation.
King and his wife Tabitha have made giving back to Maine communities a priority, and their foundation has been ranked one of the top giving foundations in the state of Maine with an estimated $3.2 million in annual gifts. They have donated substantial sums to libraries across the state, including a $3 million pledge to the Bangor Public Library in 2013 for its $9 million renovation, redesign, and capital campaign.
King did not respond to an emailed request to his office for an interview.
