Carrie Walls, the wife of a furloughed federal worker, won a large cash prize and new SUV in the Virginia lottery game on the same day her husband missed his first paycheck since the partial government shutdown began.
Walls, an Air Force veteran from Ashburn, won a $100,000 check and a Ford Expedition after her lucky ticket was drawn out of 554,000 in the state’s December 4th drawing.
“I cried. I couldn’t believe it,” Walls said, recounting the moment she realized she had won the lottery. Walls’s husband, John Walls, an employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is one of 800,000 government employees impacted by the shutdown, now in its fourth week and the longest in U.S. history.
The shutdown talks are at an impasse as President Donald Trump weighs declaring a national emergency to build a U.S.-Mexico border wall. Despite several attempts to negotiate with Democrats, including comprises on the materials used to construct the way, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer refuse to support legislation to provide $5.7 billion in border wall funding.
While collecting her prizes Friday, Walls told reporters she plans to take her family on a vacation to Disney World in Orlando, Florida.