American Independent Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairman | Victor Marani (CA)[1] |
| Vice Chairman | James Mallamace[2] |
| Founders | Bill Shearer Eileen Knowland Shearer |
| Founded | July 8, 1967; 58 years ago (1967-07-08) |
| Split from | Democratic Party Republican Party |
| Headquarters | PO Box 1479. Freedom, California95019 |
| Ideology | American nationalism Anti-communism Paleoconservatism[3] Ultraconservatism[4] Right-wing populism Formerly, now factions: Populism Economic populism Syncretic politics |
| Political position | Far-right[5][6][7][8] |
| National affiliation | American Independent Party[9] Historical: Constitution Party(1992 – 2008) |
| Slogan | "No North, No South, No East, No West – One Great Nation, Heaven Blessed!" |
| State Senate | 0 / 40 |
| State House | 0 / 80 |
| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| aipca | |
TheAmerican Independent Party (AIP) is an Americanpolitical party that was established in 1967. The American Independent Party is best known for itsnomination of Democratic then-formerGovernorGeorge Wallace ofAlabama, who carried five states in the1968 presidential election running againstRichard Nixon andHubert Humphrey on apopulist, hard-lineanti-Communist,pro-"law and order" platform, appealing toworking-class white voters. Wallace was best known for his staunchsegregationist stances. In 1976, the party split into the modern American Independent Party and theAmerican Party. From 1992 until 2008, the party was the California affiliate of the nationalConstitution Party. Its exit from the Constitution Party led to a leadership dispute during the 2008 election.
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 retiredU.S. Air Force GeneralCurtis 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: inConnecticut, 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 ofArkansas,Louisiana,Mississippi,Georgia, andAlabama. No third-party candidate has won more than one electoral vote since the 1968 election.[10][11]
In 1969, representatives from forty states established theAmerican 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 aspecial election inTennessee's 8th congressional district in northwesternTennessee, where Wallace had done well the previous November, to replace CongressmanRobert "Fats" Everett, who had died in office. Their candidate, William J. Davis, out-polled RepublicanLeonard Dunavant, with 16,375 votes to Dunavant's 15,773; but the race was carried by moderateDemocratEd Jones, with 33,028 votes (47% of the vote).
The party flag, adopted on August 30, 1970, depicts aneagle holding a group of arrows in its left talons, over acompass rose, with a banner which reads "The American Independent Party" at the eagle's base.
The American Party had gainedballot 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 aprimary 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 2021 it has never regained.[12]
In 1972, the American Party nominatedRepublican CongressmanJohn G. Schmitz of California for president and Tennessee authorThomas Jefferson Anderson, both members of theJohn 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.[13] That year, Hall Lyons, apetroleum industry executive and former Republican, ran as the AP nomineein Louisiana for the United States Senate but finished last in a four-way race dominated by the Democratic nominee,J. Bennett Johnston, Jr.
In 1976, the American Independent Party split into the more moderateAmerican Party, which included more northern conservatives and Schmitz supporters, and the American Independent Party, which focused on theDeep 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 thePopulist Party. From 1992 to 2008, the American Independent Party was the California affiliate of the nationalConstitution Party, formerly the U.S. Taxpayers Party, whose founders included the lateHoward Phillips.
A split in the American Independent Party occurred during the2008 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'sblog. King's group met in Los Angeles on June 28–29, elected King to state chair.[14] 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.[15]
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.[16] King's group sued for ballot access[17] and their case was dismissed without prejudice.[18]
The Noonan group voted to pull out of the Constitution Party and join a new party called America's Party, put together byperennial candidate and formerUnited NationsAmbassadorAlan Keyes as a vehicle for his own presidential campaign.[15] 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.[19] This group elected Markham Robinson as its new chair at the convention.
| Year | Presidential nominee[20] | Home state | Previous positions | Vice presidential nominee | Home state | Previous positions | Votes | References and notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 |  George Wallace (campaign) |  Alabama | Governor of Alabama (1963–1967) | .jpg) Curtis LeMay |  California | Chief of Staff of the Air Force (1961–1965) Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force (1957–1961) Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Air Command (1948–1957) | 9,906,473 (13.5%) 46 EV | Wallace and LeMay carried five states, receiving 45 electoral votes, plus one from a North Carolinafaithless elector. This ticket remains, as of the2024 United States presidential election, the last third party duo to win at least one state's entire electoral votes. |
| 1972 |  John G. Schmitz | California | Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromCalifornia's 35th district (1970–1973) |  Thomas J. Anderson |  Tennessee | Magazine publisher | 1,099,482 (1.4%) 0 EV | |
| 1976 |  Lester Maddox |  Georgia | Governor of Georgia (1967–1971) Lieutenant Governor of Georgia (1971–1975) |  William Dyke |  Wisconsin | Mayor of Madison (1969–1973) Candidate forGovernor of Wisconsin (1974) | 170,531 (0.2%) 0 EV | |
| 1980 |  John Rarick |  Louisiana | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives fromLouisiana's 6th district (1967–1975) | Eileen Shearer | California | Co-founder of the American Independent Party | 41,268 (<0.1%) 0 EV | |
| 1984 |  Bob Richards (Populist) |  Texas | Retired Olympic athlete (1948;1952;1956) |  Maureen K. Salaman | California | Writer, nutritionist | 66,336 (0.1%) 0 EV | |
| 1988 | James C. Griffin | Texas | Nominee forUnited States Senator from California (1980) Nominee forGovernor of California (1982) Nominee forLieutenant Governor of California (1986) | Charles Morsa | California | 27,818 (<0.1%) 0 EV | ||
| 1992 |  Howard Phillips (U.S. Taxpayers') |  Virginia | Chairman ofThe Conservative Caucus Candidate forUnited States Senator from Massachusetts (1978) | Albion W. Knight |  Florida | Presiding Bishop of theUnited Episcopal Church of North America (1989–1992) | 43,369 (<0.1%) 0 EV | |
| 1996 | Howard Phillips (U.S. Taxpayers') | Virginia | Chairman ofThe Conservative Caucus Candidate forUnited States Senator from Massachusetts (1978) Nominee for President of the United States (1992) | Herbert Titus |  Oregon | Lawyer, writer | 184,656 (0.2%) 0 EV | |
| 2000 | Howard Phillips (Constitution) | Virginia | Chairman ofThe Conservative Caucus Candidate forUnited States Senator from Massachusetts (1978) Nominee for President of the United States (1992; 1996) | Curtis Frazier |  Missouri | Candidate for United States Senator from Missouri (1998) | 98,020 (0.1%) 0 EV | [21] |
| 2004 | Michael Peroutka (Constitution) |  Maryland | Lawyer Founder of the Institute on the Constitution | .jpg) Chuck Baldwin | Florida | Pastor, radio host | 143,630 (0.1%) 0 EV | |
| 2008 |  Alan Keyes (campaign) (America's Independent) |  New York | Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs (1985–1987) Candidate for United States Senator from Maryland (1988;1992) Candidate for President of the United States (1996; 2000) Candidate for United States Senator from Illinois (2004) | Wiley Drake | California | Minister, radio host | 47,694 (<0.1%) 0 EV | |
| 2012 | Tom Hoefling (America's) |  Iowa | Activist | Robert Ornelas | California | Activist | 40,641 (<0.1%) 0 EV | |
| 2016 |  Donald Trump (campaign) | New York | Businessman Chairman ofThe Trump Organization (1971–2017) |  Mike Pence |  Indiana | Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Indiana (2001–2013) Governor of Indiana (2013–2017) | 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."[22] |
| 2020 | .jpg) Rocky De La Fuente (Alliance;Reform) | California | Businessman andperennial candidate | .jpg) Kanye West (campaign) |  Wyoming | Rapper, producer and fashion designer; 2020presidential candidate | 60,160 (0.34%) 0 EV | [23] |
| 2024 |  Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Independent campaign) | California | Environmental lawyer | _(cropped).jpg) Nicole Shanahan | California | Attorney | 681,450 (0.46%) 0 EV | Suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump.[24] |
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 nominateChuck Baldwin, the 2008 Constitution Party presidential candidate, norVirgil Goode, the 2012 nominee, and both candidates were unable to secure independent positions on the California presidential ballot.
| 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[a] | N/A | N/A |
| 2018 | No Candidate[b] | N/A | N/A |
| 2021 | No Candidate[c] | N/A | N/A |
In 2016, approximately 3% of California's 17.2 million voters wereregistered with the American Independent Party (AIP), ranking it as the third-largest political party in the state by registration, following theDemocratic (43%) andRepublican (28%) parties and those who registered as "no party preference" (24%).[26]
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.[8][27]
A 2016Los Angeles Times investigation suggested that a significant number of voters registered with the AIP may have done so under the misconception that they were registering as independent, unaffiliated voters, which is officially designated as "no party preference" in California. A poll of voters registered with the AIP indicated that a majority may not have intended to register with the party. The investigation highlighted potential confusion caused by the party's name.[4][26]
A 2016 poll conducted of California voters registered with the AIP showed that 73% identify themselves as "no affiliation" and 3% identify themselves as "undecided."[26] Upon learning the AIP platform, 50% of registered AIP voters wanted to leave the AIP.[26] ATimes review of voting records revealed a wide array of Californians have fallen victim to this error, including celebrities such asSugar Ray Leonard,Demi Moore,Emma Stone, andKaley Cuoco.[26] Similarly, in 2008,Jennifer Siebel, then-fiancée ofSan Francisco's former Democratic mayorGavin Newsom, attempted to change her party affiliation from Republican to unaffiliated, but "checked the American Independent box thinking that was what independent voters were supposed to do."[28]
This confusion results in accidentally registered AIP members being unable to vote in presidentialprimary elections and, in prior years, in all partisan primary elections other than those of the AIP.[8][26] A number of California registrars of voters had expressed concern over the confusion that the party's name causes.[26] Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said that the California voter form was "confusing and somewhat misleading."[4] However, since the advent of the "top-two" blanket primary in California in 2012, all voters may participate in non-presidential primary elections where nominations for public office are to be made. Presidential nominations and elections of members of party county central committees are still restricted to voters registered in the party where such contests are held, but a party may choose to allow voters with No Party Preference to vote in their presidential primary.[29] In addition, voters are able to re-register to the party of their choosing on election day via election day registration, mitigating the issue further.[30]
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