At the beginning of the year, Split Ticket, a site dedicated to political data analysis, released its Wins Above Replacement (WAR) models for the 2024 US elections. Self-described as a candidate quality assessment, the goal of the score is to identify the politicians who perform at a higher level in elections when compared to a generic alternative While the WAR score may accurately reflect the candidates who overperformed in a specific election, misguided attempts to replicate successful strategies without considering context are bound to lose.