Get to know Lester — My name is Lester Leavitt. I am an independent, and yes, I want to represent one of the most rural and hopelessly gerrymandered electoral districts in Illinois.

VoteLester.com

I spent eight months last year trying to get somebody to challenge the incumbent in House District 89. Everyone saw it as a fool’s errand. So I’ve decided to conduct some research and see just how hard it really is.

Lester Leavitt · Rural NW Illinois

Taking on Goliath → Help me get on the ballot →

Get Me on the Ballot

I am running as an Independent for Illinois House District 89. You won’t be asked any partisan questions if you’re willing to help.

It’s a simple question: the person currently holding this seat has never had an opponent on the ballot since extreme gerrymandering created this rural remainder (i.e. “safe Republican”) district in 2020. In truth, she is not answerable to her constituents. In 2024, almost 1-in-5 voters left the bubble blank.

Three thousand signatures in six weeks sounds insurmountable. But reframe it:

300 people × 10 signatures each

Visit the Campaign Resources page to download a print-ready petition sheet and event posters you can use to spread the word. Get 10 signatures, and I’ll arrange notarization and come pick the forms up. Deadline: May 24th.

Download petition sheets → I have 10 signatures — let’s arrange notarization →

Why an Independent helped a Republican Navy veteran challenge his own party’s incumbent

Josh Atkinson and I came up with this idea together. His campaign for mayor of Freeport had exposed a fractured support network — a coalition of people who knew the city needed change but could never agree on the best narrative to define what Freeport actually needed. That fracture, by default, returned the incumbent and the entire old guard to power. The experience left us both with the same question: if the ballot access system is structurally rigged to protect incumbents, shouldn’t that be provable — regardless of party?

About a dozen dedicated volunteers gathered 1,028 signatures on two-lane county roads where the houses are a mile apart. What we learned became the evidence for State Board Cases 107 and 108. What it proved is that the system isn’t broken. It’s working exactly as designed — for incumbents.

Read the full story →
Forbidden Friends — WWJD — Organize a focus group event

WWJD?

In an election year like none other in our lifetimes, it has become dangerous to consider ourselves a “single-issue voter.”

If you are a member of an area church congregation, visit my resource page for a proper framing of the question.

SaveRuralChurches.org →
Map of 34 United Methodist Churches and other congregations across Illinois House District 89

Church congregations across House District 89

The Research Behind the Campaign

Masters of Extraction — How the Powerful Harvest Consent from the Communities They Abandon — with extraction hierarchy and House District 89 book

The nonfiction documents the hierarchy. The fiction imagines what happens when someone challenges it. Both start in the same place — the rural remainder.

The oldest trick in the book — 1982 vs 2025 — the pile of cookies grows while the same lie keeps working

The oldest trick in the book — but algorithms made the pile grow faster and the lie spread further. Documented in Masters of Extraction.

The Scholarship

Scholar of Narrative Governance & AI Democratic Accountability. Twenty-two requirements across six functional layers — derived from first principles in public administration, social psychology, narrative theory, and network theory.

DriftlessRivers.us →

The Consulting

I help campaigns train their staff on how to generate new governing narratives capable of displacing the damaging narratives that we are all too familiar with.

DriftlessRiversCoalition.com →

The Technology

When I was a graduate student doing doctoral research from 2011 to 2015, my work led me to create an information system that anticipated AI capabilities a decade before the technology materialized.

MOCSIEsystems.com →

The work is already happening — across every district

Congressional Districts 16 and 17 are gerrymandered so badly that county central committees are split and their resources diluted. These three projects refuse to respect those artificial lines.

Layer 1 · The Diagnostic Engine · MOCSIE Req. 1–5

Vote In Your Own Best Interest

Podcasts and YouTube Shorts that identify the ideographs — the words and phrases that govern how you vote against your own interests.

Layer 2 · The Displacement Engine · MOCSIE Req. 6–8

Don’t Take the Bait

Media literacy and anti-disinformation. How rage-bait captures attention, how disinformation exploits trust, and why “just don’t engage” was never enough.

Layer 3 · The Contact Engine · MOCSIE Req. 9–10

Silence Is Betrayal

An uncontested race is not a sign of consensus — it is the sound of a system working exactly as designed to ensure that no one shows up to ask the questions that matter.

View the full specification at mocsie.ai →

Share the Campaign

Square-format graphics designed for social media and digital sharing. Right-click or long-press to save.

Masters of Extraction — pragmatists not purists — HD89 books

Masters of Extraction

The books behind the campaign. Pragmatists, not purists.

Silence Is Betrayal — What you say to constituents vs. what you say in Springfield

Silence Is Betrayal

The accountability question. Volunteer before May 24th.

The Christian Bargain of 2024 — what Christians were shown vs. what became law

The Christian Bargain

What Christians were shown vs. what actually became law.

The Vision — In Four Books

Three speculative fiction novels set in 2028 — House District 89, Soybeans, and Allegory Protocol — imagine what it takes to challenge the rural remainder. The nonfiction companion, Masters of Extraction, documents the history that made it necessary.

Browse the books →