The American Independent Party (AIP) is a far right political party of the United States that was established in 1967 by Bill Shearer and his wife, Eileen Knowland Shearer, a cousin of the late Republican U. S. Senator William F. Knowland of California. The AIP is best known for its nomination of former Governor George Wallace of Alabama, who carried five states in the 1968 presidential election running on a segregationist platform against Richard M. Nixon and Hubert H. Humphrey. The party split in 1976 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.