Utah Independent American Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairman | Carlton Bowen |
| Founders | Will Christensen, Wayne Hill, John Poulson |
| Founded | 1993 |
| Ideology | Anti-socialism [1] Mormon interests |
| Website | |
| iaputah | |
| Part of a series on |
| Conservatism in the United States |
|---|
 |
The Independent American Party of Utah (UIAP) is the fastest growing and 3rd largest political party in Utah with over 90,000 registered voters as of December 2025.
The UIAP was founded in 1993 by Will Christensen, Wayne Hill, and John Poulson, Mormons in Utah that wanted a "truly conservative" party, in line with the teachings of Ezra Taft Benson, the 13th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. [2] [3] The party has claimed that the Republican party are too Progressive, and that there are no parties more conservative than the UIAP. [4] [5] The party picked its name in reference to a prophecy from Joseph Smith recorded by Mosiah Hancock that both the Republican and Democratic parties would be destroyed by an "Independent American Party." [3] [4] The party is based on Benson's speech titled The Proper Role of Government which establishes "15 Principles for Liberty and Good Government." [3]
In 1995 the party became the Utah state affiliate of the American Party (AP), however, following the failure of the AP to secure a national ballot line for the 1996 election the UIAP called an internal straw poll in 1998 where members where presented three options; remain affiliated with the AP, affiliate with the nascent National U.S. Taxpayers Party (today the Constitution Party), or form a "National Independent American Party" (NIAP), with the members choosing the third option with 79% in favor. [3] The party often uses 1998 as their foundation year. [4] In 2001 the party created additional affiliates in Minnesota and Tennessee. [5]
The Independent American Party of Minnesota isn't a registered party, rather they've registered as a PAC. [6] [7] The PAC was involved in the Draft Ron Paul movement in 2001 for the 2004 election. [8] In 2014 the National (Utah) party announced that US Navy veteran Daryle Darnell was leading the party, and was making preparations for the 2016 United States Presidential Election. [9] At the same time the National party announced that they would be running Cary Lee Peterson for Guam's at-large congressional district. [9]
In 2021 Wayne Hill and Will Christensen died within 30 days of each other, in November and December respectively, and since John Poulson had died some years earlier the UIAP was left without strong coherent leadership. [3] Greg Duerden eventually rose to become the party's chairman. In 2023 the party surpassed 80,000 registered members, and announced plans to open branches to represent Mormon colonies in Central and South America. [3] The party has been supported by Cliven Bundy, made famous for his Bundy standoff against various federal police forces. [10]
During the 2024 United States Senate election in Utah UIAP candidate Carlton Bowen polled high enough to be in the Utah Debate Commission (UDC) sponsored debate, making history as the first UDC sponsored US Senate 3 way debate. [11] Bowen campaigned on "Traditional Values, Traditional Money, and Our Tradition of Freedom", for rejecting the environmental protections, and being stringently pro-life with no-exceptions to rape or incest. [12] Bowen ultimately got 5.74% of the vote. [13] During the 2024 Utah gubernatorial election the party ran Tommy Williams who got 1.84% of the vote. [14]
After the 2016 election the UIAP saw a surge in registration, however, UIAP's voter registration and performance in polls is highly exaggerated due to Independent and Unaffiliated voters mistakenly registering for the party as anyone who registers as "Independent" actually registers for the UIAP. [15] [2] [10] [4] Utah County clerk Josh Daniels said that "90% of people who are registered with the IAP don’t realize they’re registered with an actual political party." [4] For example, in 2022 there where 61,321 registered members of the UIAP, despite the party only having 9,194 active voters. [4] This became a more serious problem in 2021 when the Utah state government passed a bill that cut off Utahns’ ability to switch political party affiliation months before primary elections, which saw a huge surge in the party's numbers as voters thought registering as "Independent" meant being an Independent Voter. [16] This and fact that the vast majority of registered members aren't remotely in line with the party's views has been admitted by the party's chairman Greg Duerden but that regardless it fulfills their divine mission of abolishing the two major parties, as outlined in Smith's prophecy. [4] [10]
