The American Independent Party (AIP) is an American political party that was established in 1967. The American Independent Party is best known for its nomination of Democratic then-former Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who carried five states in the 1968 presidential election running against Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey on a populist, hard-line anti-communist, pro-"law and order" platform, appealing to working-class white voters. Wallace was best known for his staunch segregationist stances. In 1976, the party split into the modern American Independent Party and the American Party. From 1992 until 2008, the party was the California affiliate of the national Constitution Party. Its exit from the Constitution Party led to a leadership dispute during the 2008 election.
History Wallace campaign and early history
In 1967, the AIP was founded by Bill Shearer and his wife, Eileen Knowland Shearer. It nominated George C. Wallace (Democrat) as its presidential candidate and retired U.S. Air Force General Curtis E. LeMay (Republican) as the vice-presidential candidate. Wallace ran on every state ballot in the election, though he did not represent the American Independent Party in all fifty states: in Connecticut, for instance, he was listed on the ballot as the nominee of the "George Wallace Party." The Wallace/LeMay ticket received 13.5 percent of the popular vote and 46 electoral votes from the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. No third-party candidate has won more than one electoral vote since the 1968 election.Chrostopher D. Rodkey, "Third Parties" in Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices (eds. Roger Chapman & James Ciment: 2d ed: Routledge, 2015), p. 665.""Conservative third parties since the New Deal" in The Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political History (Vol. 1) (eds. April Kazin, Rebecca Edwards & Adam Rothman: Princeton University Press, 2010), p. 195.
In 1969, representatives from forty states established the American Party as the successor to the American Independent Party. In some places, such as Connecticut, the American Party was constituted as the American Conservative Party. (The modern American Conservative Party, founded in 2008, is unrelated to the Wallace-era party.) In March 1969, the party ran a candidate in a special election in Tennessee's 8th congressional district in northwestern Tennessee, where Wallace had done well the previous November, to replace Congressman Robert "Fats" Everett, who had died in office. Their candidate, William J. Davis, out-polled Republican Leonard Dunavant, with 16,375 votes to Dunavant's 15,773; but the race was carried by moderate Democrat Ed Jones, with 33,028 votes (47% of the vote).
The party flag, adopted on August 30, 1970, depicts an eagle holding a group of arrows in its left talons, over a compass rose, with a banner which reads "The American Independent Party" at the eagle's base.
The American Party had gained ballot access in Tennessee in 1970 as the result of George Wallace's strong (second-place) showing in the state in 1968, easily crossing the 5 percent threshold required, and held a primary election which nominated a slate of candidates including businessman Douglas Heinsohn for governor. However, neither Heinsohn nor any other candidate running on the American Party line achieved the 5 percent threshold in the 1970 Tennessee election, and it likewise failed to do so in 1972, meaning that the party lost its newfound ballot access, which as of 2025 it has never regained.Tennessee Blue Book, Tennessee Secretary of State, 1971, 1973 "Elections"
In 1972, the American Party nominated Republican Congressman John G. Schmitz of California for president and Tennessee author Thomas Jefferson Anderson, both members of the John Birch Society, for vice president, winning the party over 1.1 million votes, the highest vote share the party has ever achieved since Wallace's run. That year, Hall Lyons, a petroleum industry executive and former Republican, ran as the AP nominee in Louisiana for the United States Senate but finished last in a four-way race dominated by the Democratic nominee, J. Bennett Johnston, Jr.
After the 1976 split In 1976, the American Independent Party split into the more moderate American Party, which included more northern conservatives and Schmitz supporters, and the American Independent Party, which focused on the Deep South. Both parties have nominated candidates for the presidency and other offices. Neither the American Party nor the American Independent Party has had national success, and the American Party has not achieved ballot status in any state since 1996.
In the early 1980s, Bill Shearer led the American Independent Party into the Populist Party. From 1992 to 2008, the American Independent Party was the California affiliate of the national Constitution Party, formerly the U.S. Taxpayers Party, whose founders included the late Howard Phillips.
2007 leadership dispute A split in the American Independent Party occurred during the 2008 presidential campaign, with one faction recognizing Jim King as chairman of the AIP with the other recognizing Ed Noonan as chairman. Noonan's faction claims the old AIP main website while the King organization claims the AIP's blog. King's group met in Los Angeles on June 28–29, elected King to state chair.Quirk, Cody. "AIP holds its State Convention, endorses Chuck Baldwin and reaffirms CP affiliation ", Third Party Watch, June 30, 2008. Ed Noonan's faction, which included 8 of the 17 AIP officers, held a convention in Sacramento on July 5, 2008. Issues in the split were U.S. foreign policy and the influence of Constitution Party founder Howard Phillips on the state party.Bock, Alan. "American-Independent split ". Orange County Register Horserace '08. Wednesday, July 2, 2008.
The King group elected to stay in the Constitution Party and supported its presidential candidate, Chuck Baldwin. It was not listed as the "Qualified Political Party" by the California Secretary of State and Baldwin's name was not printed on the state's ballots. King's group sued for ballot accessQuirk, Cody. "Statement from Jim King, AIP Chairman ", Third Party Watch, July 22, 2008. and their case was dismissed without prejudice.Winger, Richard. "Keyes Wins California Lawsuit on Procedural Issue", Ballot Access News, August 26, 2008.
The Noonan group voted to pull out of the Constitution Party and join a new party called America's Party, put together by perennial candidate and former United Nations Ambassador Alan Keyes as a vehicle for his own presidential campaign. Since Noonan was on record with the California Secretary of State as (outgoing) party chairman, Keyes was added to the state ballots as the AIP candidate.Garris, Eric. "California Ballot: Alan Keyes Replaces Chuck Baldwin on American Independent Party Ticket ", Third Party Watch, July 22, 2008. This group elected Markham Robinson as its new chair at the convention.
Presidential tickets + Year PresidentialnomineeAnd political party if different from the AIP. Home state Previous positions Vice presidentialnominee Home state Previous positions Votes References and notes 1968 George Wallace(campaign) Curtis LeMay 9,906,473 (13.5%)46 EV Wallace and LeMay carried five states, receiving 45 electoral votes, plus one from a North Carolina faithless elector. This ticket remains, as of the 2024 United States presidential election, the last third party duo to win at least one state's entire electoral votes. 1972 John G. Schmitz Thomas J. Anderson 1,099,482 (1.4%)0 EV 1976 Lester Maddox William Dyke 170,531 (0.2%)0 EV 1980 John Rarick Eileen Shearer 41,268 (<0.1%)0 EV 1984 Bob Richards(Populist) Maureen K. Salaman 66,336 (0.1%)0 EV 1988 James C. Griffin Charles Morsa 27,818 (<0.1%)0 EV 1992 Howard Phillips(U.S. Taxpayers') Albion W. Knight 43,369 (<0.1%)0 EV 1996 Howard Phillips(U.S. Taxpayers') Herbert Titus 184,656 (0.2%)0 EV 2000 Howard Phillips(Constitution) Curtis Frazier 98,020 (0.1%)0 EV Joseph Sobran was the original vice presidential nominee, but he withdrew from the ticket and was replaced by Frazier. 2004 Michael Peroutka(Constitution) Chuck Baldwin 143,630 (0.1%)0 EV 2008 Alan Keyes(campaign)(America's Independent) Wiley Drake 47,694 (<0.1%)0 EV 2012 Tom Hoefling(America's) Robert Ornelas 40,641 (<0.1%)0 EV 2016 Donald Trump(campaign)(Republican) Mike Pence 62,984,825 (46.1%)304 EV According to CNN, "Trump did not seek the nomination of the American Independent Party and did not have to take any formal steps to accept it. According to Sam Mahood, the press secretary for California Secretary of State Alex Padilla (D), California law permits one party to nominate the presidential candidate of another party and to have that choice reflected on the ballot. California election code does not require a presidential candidate who is already on the ballot to consent to receiving the nomination of another qualified political party." 2020 Rocky De La Fuente(Alliance; Reform) Kanye West(campaign)(Independent; Birthday) 60,160 (0.34%)0 EV 2024Robert F. Kennedy Jr.(Independent campaign) Nicole Shanahan 681,450 (0.46%)0 EVSuspended his campaign and endorsed Trump.
Following the split within the American Independent Party into factions led by Jim King and Ed Noonan, the Noonan faction has maintained control over the party's operations and ballot access in California. The party did not nominate Chuck Baldwin, the 2008 Constitution Party presidential candidate, nor Virgil Goode, the 2012 nominee, and both candidates were unable to secure independent positions on the California presidential ballot.
California elections Gubernatorial candidates +Electoral results of American Independent Party candidates in California gubernatorial elections Year Candidate # Votes % Votes 1970 Bill Shearer 65,847 1.01 1974 Edmon V. Kaiser 83,869 1.34 1978 Theresa F. Dietrich 67,103 0.97 1982 James C. Griffin 56,249 0.71 1986 Gary V. Miller 50,547 0.68 1990 Jerome McCready 139,661 1.81 1994 Jerome McCready 133,888 1.55 1998 Nathan Johnson 37,964 0.45 2002 Reinhold Gulke 128,035 1.71 2003 Charles Pineda, Jr. 1,104 0.01 2003 Diane Beall Templin 1,067 0.01 2006 Edward C. Noonan 61,901 0.71 2010 Chelene Nightingale 166,312 1.65 2014 No Candidate N/A N/A 2018 No Candidate N/A N/A 2021 No Candidate N/A N/A2022No Candidate N/A N/A2026No Candidate N/A N/A
Statewide candidates 2016
2020
2022
2024
2026
List of chairs and vice chairs
Bill Shearer: 1967–1999 Nathan Johnson: 1999–2002 Jim King: 2002–2004 Nancy Spirkoff: 2004–2006 Edward C. Noonan/Mark Seidenberg: 2006–2008 Disputed: Jim King and Markham Robinson claim chairmanship: 2008–2024 Victor Marani/James Mallamace: 2024–current
California membership issues In 2016, approximately 3% of California's 17.2 million voters were registered with the American Independent Party (AIP), ranking it as the third-largest political party in the state by registration, following the Democratic (43%) and Republican (28%) parties and those who registered as "no party preference" (24%).John Myers, Christine Mai-Duc & Ben Welsh, Are you an independent voter? You aren't if you checked this box, Los Angeles Times (April 17, 2016).
However, it has long been proposed by political analysts that the party, which has received very few votes in recent California elections, maintains its state ballot status because people join the American Independent Party mistakenly believing that they are registering as "independent" voters.Voting at the Political Fault Line: California's Experiment With the Blanket Primary (eds. Bruce E. Cain & Elisabeth R. Gerber, University of California Press, 2002), p. 219. .