Goodfellow hoped that a small but committed party could hold the balance of power in Parliament and force the government to adopt more business-friendly policies.
The sitting Mayor of Wellington, Thomas Hislop, was recruited as the party's political leader,[2] and Davy remained its chief organiser and strategist.
Despite their failure to enter Parliament, their impact on the election may have been the opposite to what was intended; by splitting the anti-Labour vote, they probably contributed to Labour's overwhelming victory in 1935.
Among the defeated Democrat candidates were Frederick Doidge and Matthew Oram, who would become future National Party MPs.
[3] Davy himself went on to found the People's Movement and the New Zealand Co-operative Party but eventually retired from politics and returned to business.