Horsfield, as the secretary of the new party, as well as retaining members of his staff.
The initial leader of the Democratic Party was the former premier Alexander Mair,[5] but he resigned on 2 February 1944 was replaced by Reginald Weaver on 10 February.
[6][7] Weaver led the party to the 1944 state election where it won 19% of the vote and 12 of the 90 seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Horsfield, the secretary of the Democratic Party, resigned on 26 July 1944, paving the way for a LDP-Democratic merger again.
[8] However, two days after federal UAP leader Robert Menzies announced that he was planning to set up a new "political movement with a Liberal policy" at an October conference, negotiations between LDP and Democratic Party broke down and the party merger did not take place.