 He led the establishment of the "Antipersonalist" UCR in 1924, becoming its caucus leader in the Senate.He secured his party's nominatation for the Presidency ahead of the 1928 election, though voters' support for the state oil concern established by Yrigoyen during his first term, YPF, and nostalgia for the aging leader himself translated into a landslide defeat for Melo and his running-mate, Vicente Gallo.Following General José Félix Uriburu's 1930 coup against President Yrigoyen, Melo endorsed the conservative candidate (and Uriburu's pick), General Agustín Justo, on the grounds that the UCR nominee, former President Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear had been reunited with the Yrigoyen faction.