A North Carolina man running for Congress hit the jackpot this month after winning more than $757,000 in the lottery, boosting his campaign’s coffers just weeks before voting began.
Josh McConkey, an emergency physician and U.S. Air Force reserve colonel who served in Iraq, announced his bid for Congress in February 2023.
He is running against nearly a dozen other Republicans for the seat and, he says, the big cash injection couldn’t have come at a better time.
“This is divine intervention,” McConkey told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview this week. “There’s no other way to explain it, the timing is just absolutely perfect.”
‘I don’t play the lottery that often. I literally just fill up on gas, look up through the window and say, “Hey, you need to buy some tickets.”
“This happened for a reason,” he continued. “I don’t believe in luck.”
Early voting took place on February 15, and on February 2, McConkey received the $757,000 prize.
Josh McConkey won $750,000 in the North Carolina lottery and told DailyMail.com he plans to use his winnings to fund his campaign for Congress
McConkey is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and served as a flight surgeon in Iraq
The flight surgeon is running as a Republican for North Carolina’s 13th District, which includes many of the neighborhoods south of Raleigh.
The area, currently represented by Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel, has recently been redivided and is now heavily in favor of the Republican Party.
“God literally reaches out and gives me the opportunity to deliver my message of safety, security and service,” he told DailyMail.com.
The doctor was on his way to drop his son off at gymnastics practice when he stopped for gas on January 31.
At the pump was a bright LED sign that said the lottery prize was almost $800,000.
That’s why the doctor decided to buy a ticket online.
The next evening he received an email telling him he had won and that he needed to log in and fill out some forms.
“There’s no way I’m going to click that link,” he remembered thinking, assuming it was a scam.
McConkey works as an emergency room physician, where he regularly treats patients with fentanyl overdoses
After moving to North Carolina in 2012, McConkey served at a veterans hospital and as an assistant professor at Duke University
After calling his wife Elsa to confirm what he saw, they were both in disbelief, he told DailyMail.com.
The next morning, Elsa dropped the kids off and McConkey went to the lottery claim center.
After confirming his identity to lottery officials, they took him to a secure room and presented him with an oversized check for $757,577.
McConkey, who works primarily in emergency rooms, told DailyMail.com that he is running to end the fentanyl crisis that has killed tens of thousands of Americans and hundreds of his own patients in recent years.
“The failures of this Biden administration are being dumped on me every day,” he said. ‘As an emergency physician, I am the one who looks at these parents and tells them that their son or daughter has died.’
“I’m running to secure the border and prevent children from dying because I see it every day,” he added.
The Republican primary for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District will take place on March 5.