Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the PDC participated in various presidential and legislative elections which were marked by electoral fraud in the PCN's favor.

In December 1980, José Napoleón Duarte, a founding member of the PDC and former 1972 presidential candidate, was appointed as the president of the JRG.

On 26 October 1960, the Armed Forces of El Salvador overthrew President Lieutenant Colonel José María Lemus and established the Junta of Government.

[10] Rodríguez Portillo opposed the PCN's Colonel Fidel Sánchez Hernández,[11] who won the election with percent 54.37 of the vote.

[6][7][15] Prior to the election, the PDC's leaders accused the government of using the National Guard to harass, kidnap, and assault party activists.

On 25 March 1972, some military officers led by Colonel Benjamín Mejía attempted a coup d'état against the PCN government with the intention of installing Duarte as president.

[17] Following the failed coup, Duarte sought refuge in the Venezuelan embassy in San Salvador, but he was captured, beaten, and interrogated by the Salvadoran government.

[19] As a result of widespread fraud, the PCN's candidate, General Carlos Humberto Romero, won the presidency.

[23] Prior to his assassination on 24 March 1980 by a far-right death squad, Óscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, called for the PDC to withdraw its involvement from the JRG due to the government's attacks against Salvadorans and clergy of the Catholic Church.

[27] In January 1981, during a rebel offensive of the Salvadoran Civil War, the left-wing Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) stated that it would assassinate Duarte.

[28] In the 1982 legislative election, the PDC emerged as the largest party, winning 24 of the legislature's 60 seats,[4] but it was excluded from the ruling government coalition led by the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA), a far-right political party founded by Major Roberto D'Aubuisson[29] (who was also elected as the president of the Legislative Assembly).

D'Aubuisson was considered to be the most likely candidate to be elected by the Legislative Assembly to serve as president of El Salvador, but due to lobbying from the American and Salvadoran High Commands against D'Aubuisson due to his connection to far-right death squads, the Legislative Assembly ultimately voted to elect Álvaro Magaña of Democratic Action as the country's president.

[7][33] Hugo Barrera, D'Aubuisson's running mate, stated that ARENA would not accept the results, claiming that the election "did not have any credibility" ("no tienen ninguna credibilidad"), that the results were a "farse" ("farsa"), and alleged that the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had rigged the election.

[31] During Duarte's presidency, the Salvadoran government sought to negotiate a peace treaty with the FMLN to end the civil war.

[39][40] According to an opinion poll conducted by the Central American University in 1987, only 6 percent of voters identified with the PDC.

Duarte attempted to mediate and suggested to run Rodríguez Portillo as a compromise candidate, but his proposal was rejected by the party.

[45] Voters preferred ARENA's proposal to use military action to end the civil war over the PDC's by-then failed peace negotiations.

[40] The PDC often sided with ARENA and supported their effort to ratify the Dominican Republic–Central America Free Trade Agreement and pass a law supposedly aimed at fighting terrorism.

[47] The PDC was effectively replaced by the Party of Hope, which was registered with the National Electoral Tribunal in October 2011.

[55] Meanwhile, Nuevas Ideas, the political party established by Bukele in 2018, won a supermajority[56][57] in the Legislative Assembly, half of the country's municipalities, and most of El Salvador's seats to PARLACEN.

[59] That same day, Carballo voted with Nuevas Ideas, the PCN, and GANA to elect Ernesto Castro as the president of the Legislative Assembly,[60] remove five members of the Supreme Court of Justice's Constitutional Chamber,[61] and remove Attorney General Raúl Melara.

[62] Ahead of the 2024 general election, Carballo, who had become the party's leader, announced that the PDC would not select a presidential candidate.

[38] Retired U.S. Army Colonel Brian J. Bosch described the early-civil war PDC as "nonradical" and "mildly left-of-center".

These terms reminded the Salvadoran political right of Fidel Castro, and as such, the right viewed the PDC as "dangerously left-wing".

[2] The PDC's headquarters is located at Alameda Juan Pablo II and Once Avenue Norte Bis Número 507 in San Salvador, the country's capital city.