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How can you get the Communist Party USA or it's equivalent (some Communist/Revolutionary Socialist Party) at least 5% in national elections during the Great Depression? Additionally increasing it's influence within the labor movement and popular culture during the time period.

My thought was perhaps if Hughes is elected rather than Wilson and the wartime and postwar repression against the Socialist Party and IWW is less extreme. The Socialist Party splits as OTL in 1919, with the Left being purged by the Social Democrats establishment of the party. Leading to the foundation of the CPUSA. Without fear in the wake of the Palmer Raids the CPUSA doesn't go underground from during the initial post-war era.

As a result the CPUSA manages to hold on to much of the membership that had originally departed the Socialist Party. Perhaps if the IWW manages to prevent it's own split come 1924 and it remains strong some form of workable alliance can be worked out between the CPUSA and IWW. Then during the Great Depression the CPUSA could possibly win some local elections across the country and get a few percentage points in national elections.

I'm not sure how realistic this idea is though and I'd like to hear ideas on the concept of a more powerful CPUSA during the depression in general.
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