Last week, Ted Cruz, the unexpectedly endangered Republican senator from Texas, warned that Beto O’Rourke, his Democratic opponent, would turn the state into California, with “tofu and silicone and dyed hair.” Does Cruz really think every blonde in Texas — and every middle-aged man with remarkably little gray — is natural, and nobody has had work done?

Meanwhile, Joe Manchin, Democratic senator from West Virginia — which went for Donald Trump by 40 points — seems to have the edge in his re-election campaign. His secret weapon? Defense of the Affordable Care Act, which drastically reduced the number of uninsured residents in his state.

These two races epitomize how the 2018 campaign is playing out. On one side, Republicans are running almost entirely on identity politics — white identity politics — rather than policy. True, they’re running a lot of ads about immigration, but not about immigration’s actual effects. Instead, they’re all about a mythical wave of crimes committed by scary dark people.

On the other side, Democrats are running on policy issues, above all health care, promising to protect people with pre-existing conditions while also protecting and perhaps expanding Medicare.