‘Biden Bingo': The president’s campaign adapts a classic game to include malarkey and aviators

PHOENIX (AP) — DeAnna Mireau reached into a container and fished out a scrap of paper.

“The next one is — do we have a drumroll?” she called out to a room crowded with some two dozen older adults and a half-dozen journalists. “Justice! Justice for all.”

Nobody stirred, so Mireau reached for another scrap. Next was “worker empowerment.” Then “malarkey.” Finally, when she called out “folks,” there was a winner.

“Biden Bingo!” came a quiet voice in the middle of the room. A white-haired man straightened his elbow to raise a triumphant fist in the air. The room filled with applause.

With that, 83-year-old Art Winter of Scottsdale, Arizona, became the first victor in President Joe Biden’s latest effort to engage older voters in his quest for a second term.

Biden is marrying campaign mainstays like rallies and phone banks with social events like bingo and pickleball to get senior citizens involved in what is likely to be an extremely close election. Older people are more likely to vote than the average American, and many retirees have the free time to volunteer to knock on doors or make phone calls.

Seniors also make up an outsized share of the population in several swing states, including Arizona, a popular retirement destination. Biden narrowly beat former President Donald Trump, again the presumptive Republican nominee this year, by fewer than 11,000 votes here in 2020.

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