Former Agriculture secretary wins $150,000 in Powerball drawing

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack (D), who also served as secretary of Agriculture from 2009 to 2017, claimed a $150,000 Powerball prize Monday, Iowa Lottery officials said.

Vilsack won in the Jan. 22 drawing, by which point the jackpot had reached about $347 million, Des Moines-area CBS affiliate KCCI reported.

“Occasionally, when the Powerball gets above $250 million, I think, ‘What the heck?’ You know, you can dream, like everybody else,” Vilsack said, according to the channel. “And I also know that the chances of me winning anything are next to none and so the money is going to go to education or veterans or the state fund for natural resources or infrastructure, or all the good things that the lottery does. So, I figure it’s a good contribution.”

Vilsack told KCCI he had forgotten about the ticket, “then I woke up 10 days later on a Saturday morning and I said, ‘Oh, geez, I wonder how I did?’”

The former Agriculture secretary said he had specific plans for his winnings, according to KCCI.

“The church is going to get a little bit of it, St. Boniface; I’m going to send that check out today,” he said. “And the kids are going to get a little bit because you always try to help your kids out. And then the rest is going to go to my banker. And he’s going to be very pleased to get it. Because we still have an outstanding mortgage from many years ago and this will help pay it down to the point where retirement can be a little bit more comfortable than it might have otherwise been.”