Inside Josh Stell’s Victory for Minooka Village Trustee

On April 1, 2025, Independent candidate Josh Stell won first place in Minooka, Illinois’ village council election. Stell won a trustee seat with 587 votes, making his first political campaign a definitive success. At age 26, he is now providing representation for younger generations on the village council.

Below, we’ll explore how Stell used GoodParty.org’s campaign tools to help win his election — and how more first-time candidates can run, win, and serve across the United States. 

A New Voice on the Minooka Village Board

Prior to running for office, Stell founded CTRL-ALT-FIX, an IT solutions company. He also earned a master’s degree in Cybersecurity from Western Governors University and spent time volunteering with community organizations.

“Starting small, I volunteered with different groups in my community and other communities since I was about the age of 20,” Stell said. “Volunteering and putting in effort to organize events and things like that is something that I was passionate about.”

Stell decided to run for local office after noticing that the village board lacked representation from younger generations.

“There was no one on the board who was under the age of 55, despite about 70% of the village of Minooka being under the age of 55. In seeing that, I really wanted to be the voice for people my age — people that want to live in Minooka for a long time yet to come,” Stell said.

Another motivating factor was Stell’s desire for greater transparency in local government.

“ People will come to you with a problem that may not be a problem you have the power to solve, but you might be able to help start bridging different areas together to come to a solution,” he said.

Running a Transparent, Tech-Forward Campaign

Transparency remained an important theme throughout Stell’s campaign, driving his commitment to communicating effectively with voters. He said creating a public campaign website and Facebook page helped him communicate directly with voters.

“I was the only candidate with a website,” Stell said. “Only one other candidate had a public Facebook page.”

These platforms allowed Stell to shape his own campaign’s narrative.

“Being transparent about why I was running, what my thoughts were on things, that way nobody had to guess or wonder,” he said. “I really feel like the transparency made it a lot easier for me to put out the message I wanted, rather than having other people distort that.”

In addition to building an online presence, Stell sent text messages to voters through GoodParty.org’s Pro tools. Once again, text messaging set Stell’s campaign apart from his opponents.

“I would say I was the only candidate that sent out texts, and that was made entirely possible with using GoodParty.org’s tools and platform,” he said.

Stell said that without GoodParty.org’s tools, he would not have had the time or resources to send text outreach to voters.

“I was one person doing everything. I was focused on so many other areas, I just simply wouldn't have gotten the text done,” Stell said. “I sent out about 5,000 text messages within the week and a half or so leading up to the election, and I think that made a huge difference.”

Beyond tools for voter outreach, Stell also received support through the GoodParty.org Community — an online community of Independent candidates, volunteers, and elected officials. He said it was helpful to share ideas with other local candidates from around the country.

“If you're going to run for office, lots of other people are going to go through the same questions you are. It's probably going to be very similar scenarios, whether it's city council in Texas or village trustee in Illinois,” he said. “Being able to have that network to bounce questions off of or say, ‘Hey, I found this really worked for me, maybe it'll work for you’ and bouncing that off of other candidates going through the same first-time candidacy issues, I think being a part of that really helps.”

Getting Started in Local Government

Stell recommended that anyone interested in running for office begin by volunteering in their community. 

“Even if you think you don't have time, if there is something that you are passionate about, you will find the time to do it,” Stell said.

He cited his own experience running for office as a small business owner:

“I have a day job, I own a business, and by the time I was running for office, I was also working on my pilot's license, which is something I've always wanted to do,” Stell said. “If you want to do something bad enough, you'll find a way. And if you don't want to do it bad enough, that's okay. There's other ways that you can still have an impact on your community. I just think it's really important that people find what's right for them.”

Stell also recommended that new candidates use GoodParty.org’s tools for their campaigns.

“Just about any person could use GoodParty.org’s tools to be able to run an effective campaign,” he said.

Bringing Independent Leadership to Minooka, Illinois

One of Stell’s first priorities as an elected official is listening to the community and truly understanding how Minooka’s local government functions.

“ I want to learn as much as possible. I want to be a sponge,” Stell said. “Even though I have ideas for things, I think it's really important that I get a good base understanding of how things are, and more importantly, why they are that way right now, before coming in and shattering things. The most important thing when you're new with anything is absorbing as much as you can.”

Stell is one of thousands of Independent candidates who have won their elections with the help of GoodParty.org’s campaign tools.