In 1950, he ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate. He lost to then-state auditor Joseph T. Ferguson, who in turn lost the general election to the Republican incumbent, Robert A. Taft. In December 1950, President Harry S. Truman appointed DiSalle as director of the Office of Price Stabilization, a sub-agency of the Korean War-era Economic Stabilization Agency which established and enforced war-time price controls. DiSalle resigned as director on January 23, 1952, in order to run again for U.S. Senate. He won the Democratic nomination but lost the general election to the Republican incumbent, John W. Bricker.