Since the 1980s, however, the party's popularity is more present on the coastal areas, particularly around Ecuador's economic center and most populous city, Guayaquil, and in coastal provinces, such as Guayas, El Oro, Los Rios, and Manabi, which constitute about half of the country's population.

Thus, while holding all major positions in Guayas and Guayaquil, the PSC has not held the presidential office since the presidency of León Febres Cordero (1984–88).

After Febres Cordero's faction inside the PSC succeeded in appointing Jaime Nebot as the party's presidential candidate, Sixto Durán Ballén and his supporters left the party to form the more right-wing Republican Union.

The PSC candidate, Xavier Neira, won 12.2 percent of the vote in the 2002 presidential election.

After León Febres Cordero's death, Jaime Nebot took over the leadership of the party, and split it into a coalition with his provincial brother party called "Madera de Guerrero", an allusion to a song of the folklore of Guayaquil with the same name.