Like many candidates attacked over budgets, Thom Tillis, a Republican running for the Senate from North Carolina, responded in a recent debate by disputing his opponent’s numbers.

“Kay’s math just doesn’t add up,” he said. The Democratic incumbent, Senator Kay Hagan, seized on that small opening to claim personal offense. “I’m actually insulted,” she declared. “I understand math.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, counting heavily on women to turn out across the country, accused Mr. Tillis of “mansplaining” and “condescension” toward his female adversary. On anyone’s outrage meter, it was tame stuff compared with the incendiary comments about rape that hurt Republican candidates so badly two years ago.

But Democrats must wage “war on women” attacks against the opponents they have, not the ones they wish they had. The dearth of such ammunition this year is no accident. Republican strategists in Washington have worked to smother the most ideologically extreme candidacies and have girded themselves for attempts to cast the party as hostile to women.