PDT enjoyed wide, but regionalized electoral success in the 1980s and 1990s, with Brizola winning the governorship of the Rio de Janeiro state, becoming the first and only Brazilian to have governed two different states, previously his native Rio Grande do Sul before the coup and while leading a civil resistance campaign which had successfully delayed an earlier coup attempt in 1962.

However, Brizola lost to rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva by a margin of 0.5%, stopping him from facing the right-wing candidate, Fernando Collor de Mello, in the runoff.

Differences with PT, which had accumulated over the 90s as they disputed for similar voter bases, led to an early breakway from the Lula administration, and PDT entered the opposition.

The PDT held onto the governorship of Amapá, and won a surprising victory in the gubernatorial election in Maranhão, which however was overturned due to electoral irregularities in 2009.

[10] In 2018, the party announced Ciro Gomes, former Minister of Finance (1994-1995) and governor from the state of Ceará (1991-1994), to run for the presidency, receiving 12.47% of the votes in the first round,[11] the second highest by a PDT candidate, second only to Leonel Brizola's bid, in 1989.

This internal movement was always ousted and disenfranchised by the national chairman of the party, Carlos Lupi, who was always loyal to the PT government.

The move was partially successful: the PDT made significant gains in the municipal elections of 2016 and won more mayoral races than any party of the left apart from the PSB, while PT's own seats fell by 60%.

[16] Ciro Gomes, despite having a comparatively much smaller campaign and multiple deals on PT's part to sway other parties, mainly PSB, away from PDT,[16] managed to finish in third place.

[16] The current logo is the fist and rose, based on the version created by José María Cruz Novillo for the Spanish Socialist Workers Party in 1977.