Fox News politics editor Chris Stirewalt said moderate Democrats are concerned that a "zombie Biden" may spoil their last, best chance to stop Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., from becoming their party's next nominee for president of the United States.
Nevada Democrats will hold their caucuses on Saturday and Sanders is leading the field of candidates by double-digits, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polling in the state.
However, one national frontrunner is not even under consideration in the Silver State.
"The whole thing is weird because the person who's in second place nationally isn't on the ballot," said Stirewalt on Fox Nation's "What Are The Odds?"
"Mike Bloomberg... is the leading contender right now for the establishment or normal lane of the Democratic Party, the mainstream Democrat candidate, he's the frontrunner."
According to Stirewalt, if Sanders wins in Nevada by a wide margin, he will be well-positioned to eventually claim the party's nomination.
"That sets Bernie up for his ongoing, stretch run to Super Tuesday and to soak up hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of delegates and get to the place where... nobody's going to catch him in. The best you can hope to do is force a contested convention."
But there's another bad potential outcome in Nevada for establishment Democrats -- a seemingly respectable finish by the troubled Joe Biden campaign.
"If Biden does OK in Nevada and he's the second-place finisher. ... and goes on to South Carolina... if he does OK in these states," Stirewalt argued, "the possibility of stopping Bernie Sanders goes to basically zero for Democrats."
"I think [Biden has] blown up his own argument a couple of times," said Stirewalt. "So the possibility of even a partially revived Biden gives you zombie Biden."
The RealClearPolitics average of national polling in the Democratic primary race shows that Biden has steadily declined from his frontrunner status at 41 percent in May 2019 to 17 percent support in February.
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"If Joe Biden stays in this race, if he's a real competitor on Super Tuesday, if he and Mike Bloomberg are cutting up that share of the vote, it's curtains for the mainstream Democratic Party," he said.
"That's the concern that Democrats I talked to have, which is that Biden will not get a decisive knockout [in Nevada]. He will not be knocked out of the race in South Carolina, lingers on and just makes it worse," Stirewalt concluded.
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