Politico: “Advisers to three rival campaigns privately conceded over the weekend that the best anyone else could hope for here is second or third. Some of them gape at the crowd sizes at Sanders’ events — like the swarm of supporters who accompanied Sanders, his fist raised, to an early caucus site in Las Vegas on Saturday, the first day of early voting in the state.”

“While few expect that Sanders can carry more than a third of the vote in Nevada, nearly everyone believes that will be enough to win in a field where the moderate vote remains splintered. It is becoming a source of celebration for Sanders’ supporters and an urgent problem for those who want to prevent him from claiming the nomination.”

Associated Press:  One thing that unites the establishment: Fear of Sanders.

“Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren all must weigh the costs of punching Bloomberg where he looks most vulnerable: stop-and-frisk, charges of sexism, billionaire entitlement. The more zealous the attacks, the greater the risk he turns his campaign ATM against them,” Axios reports.

“They’re already struggling to catch up with Sanders in national support and campaign dollars. Turning their focus toward Bloomberg only complicates that task.”

“There’s another risk, at least for the moderates: Weakening the one who may be best poised to stop Sanders, a democratic socialist, if they fail themselves.”

First Read: “So moderate Democrats across the country: You’ll need to choose your fighter by Super Tuesday. Who’s it going to be?”

Sen. Bernie Sanders tore into presiential rival Michael Bloomberg at a Las Vegas campaign, saying the billionaire former New York mayor is trying to “buy the presidency” by paying millions of dollars in advertising, ABC News reports.

Topless protesters stormed the stage at a Nevada rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders and later found themselves in police custody, the Washington Examiner reports.

“The two women poured milk on themselves and walked around shouting until security escorted them offstage, according to footage of the incident, which circulated online. The crowd continued to make raucous noise while attendees waited for the protesters to get off the stage.”

Sanders joked about the incident later: “This is Nevada, there’s always a little excitement at no extra cost.”

President Trump’s campaign manager deleted a tweet featuring a dramatic photo of Air Force One at the Daytona 500 after users pointed out that the shot was from President George W. Bush’s visit to the NASCAR race in 2004, not from Trump’s visit on Sunday, CNN reports.

Axios: “In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections — buoyed by Republican control of both chambers — President Trump viewed campaigning for the House as a lower-tier priority and instead poured his energy into rallying for the Senate.”

“But after the GOP reckoning in 2018, and experiencing firsthand how damaging a Democratic-led House has been to him, Trump is now personally invested in helping Republicans regain the majority in November.”

“If Trump wins re-election and Republicans are able to hold the Senate and take back the House, Trump will essentially have free rein to do whatever he wants in his second term.”

“Anxiety is rising over the possibility of another tech-induced meltdown at the Nevada Democratic caucuses on Saturday,” Politico reports.

“In interviews, three caucus volunteers described serious concerns about rushed preparations for the Feb. 22 election, including insufficient training for a newly-adopted electronic vote-tally system and confusing instructions on how to administer the caucuses. There are also unanswered questions about the security of Internet connections at some 2,000 precinct sites that will transmit results to a central ‘war room’ set up by the Nevada Democratic Party.”

Nevada Independent: Long lines, time-consuming Google Forms snag but do not snarl first day of early caucusing in Nevada.