Democrats hit jackpot with Tennessee Powerball winner
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Democrats have hit the jackpot with a Tennessee Powerball winner.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/2bAh7Gq ) that Roy Cockrum, who won a $154 million lump sum payout in 2014, has since then given more than $300,000 to Democratic causes.
Cockrum left his native Knoxville for college and spent 20 years as an actor and state manager before joining the Society of Saint John the Evangelist, an Episcopal religious community in Massachusetts. He returned to Knoxville in 2009 to care for his parents.
Since winning the jackpot, Cockrum has given about $135,000 to a PAC operated by the Democratic National Committee, $98,000 to groups working to get Democrats elected to Congress and at least $20,000 to the Tennessee Democratic Party.
Cockrum is one of the state’s 11 Democratic presidential electors.
