Deb on the Elites: if Eugene Debs was a Populist Democrat President

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

In this timeline, named "Dab on the Elites", Eugene Debs, after reading socialist theory, did not come to the conclusion abolishing private property would help workers.
Instead, he became a working-class populist who supported an alliance between urban and rural workers while being neutral on race.

Debs was elected to the Indiana State Senate for a working-class district near Chicago in 1902, 1904 and 1906, before being elected Governor in 1908. As Governor, he created the Bank of Indiana, cheap credit for farmers, required large businesses to provide paid leave for injured workers, fought corruption and machine politics, and unsuccessfully proposed municipal ownership of public utilities.

Debs was nominated at the 1912 Democratic National Convention due to having the endorsement of Bryan and Hearst, and speaking against Tammany; Wilson still ran, and would recieve a cabinet post under Debs, but did not have support outside of Mid-Atlantic and New England delegations (bar NY, which voted for Clark).

In the general election, Eugene Debs ran a campaign focused on the "workers, farmers and professionals of America", proposing an eight-hour workday, greater regulation of banks, the reestablishment of a national bank, paid leave for workers who suffered workplace injuries, federal support for agriculture and protection of unions, lower tariffs and a tariff commission, and avoiding military intervention unless attacked. He chose Governor of Massachusetts Eugene Foss as his running mate in order to appeal to Northeastern and middle-class voters, and with that same goal in mind, the Democratic platform did not advocate for municipal ownership.

Debs tried to reach out to business by privately promising to work closely with them and not undermine capitalism. Still, he had little business support, as trusts did not few these promises were sincere (in fact, they weren't), and the machiavellianism helped the Socialist Labor candidate.

Republicans and conservative Democrats spent most of the Campaign attacking Debs as a socialist and radical (accusations he denied), but the Republican split earned him the presidency.

Back to the campaign, Debs had attacked Theodore Roosevelt for believing in "good trusts" and having, in fact, brought less antitrust cases than Taft.

Hughes defeated Debs by campaigning on the war in Europe and how the President had opposed any American involvement even after the Kaiserliche Marine sank a civilian ship.
Hughes also supported the Bank of the United States, Federal Trade Commission and tariff commission created by Debs, but promised to return to an economic policy that took all Americans into account, not just the working class. The choice of Hadley was meant to avoid attacks for having Fairbanks as a "reactionary" running mate.

The President promised to further the progressive reforms of his first term, but his priority was to call WWI a "rich man's war and poor man's fight", and emphasize how he launched an expedition into Mexico and banned US ships from travelling into dangerous areas. His views were popular among German and Irish immigrants, but not many other people due to the militarist character of the German and Austro-Hungarian monarchies.