The first American pope, Leo XIV, voted in past Republican primary elections, but is not officially registered with any party.
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Released on May 11, 2025
Hours after Robert Previst became the first American-born clergyman on May 8, social media debates in the United States speculated whether Pope Leo XIV was a “registered Republican,” as is known after the election.
“Scoop: Our Turning Points Action Team elicited the voting history of Pope Leo XIV,” conservative influencer Charlie Kirk wrote on social media platform X on May 8th.
Many other X-posts called Prevost are “Subscribed Republicans.”
Prevost, 69, is a registered voter in Will County, Illinois, and has voted for the past 13 years. In Illinois, voters do not register by party affiliation. But they declare parties when they vote in the primary, according to an April video by the Illinois Election Commission.
“But you are not bound by this party or officially registered and you are free to vote for another party in subsequent elections,” the video says.
The Illinois voter registration application does not require people to provide parties affiliation.
The Will County Clerk’s office has sent out voter information for the Politifact Protifact Prevost. It shows that he voted in the 2012, 2014 and 2016 Republican primary elections. He voted for absentees in the 2024 general election and voted for undeclared party affiliations.
The Kirk and others in the virus screenshots shared on X are from L2, a paywalled database that aggregates consumer and voter data. Prevost’s L2 profile lists “Republicans” in the “Party” field.
🚨🚨🚨New Pope is a registered Republican! pic.twitter.com/bj8mh8h2qs
– Jared Small 💁🏼♀️ (@jaredsmall) May 8, 2025
It is unclear how L2 will determine the affiliation of parties for people living in states such as Illinois where this information is not included in the voter registration. L2 did not respond to Politifact’s request for comment.
Born in 1955, Prevost grew up in Dalton, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He was ordained as a priest in 1982, then moved to Peru, where he lived between 1988 and 1998. He returned to Chicago in 1999 and served as the former province of Augustine’s “Mother of a Good Lawyer” covering the Midwest and Canada.
Prevost’s voter files list addresses to homes owned by his brother John Prevost. It was not possible to determine the address of Robert Previst, or where he was voted before 2012. He returned to Peru in 2014 and served as Bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. He then moved to Rome.
US citizens who live abroad and meet certain criteria can vote for absentees abroad.
We contacted the office of a clerk in Cook County, Illinois, where Chicago is located, and asked if Prevost had voter files in the county. The clerk’s office directed that a request for freedom of information law be submitted for that information. We did, but we didn’t get an immediate response.
Elizabeth Shakman Heard, a professor of religious and political science at Northwestern University, outside Chicago, said Prevost’s voting history had not said that “he was leaning too much towards a Republican candidate for his views and status in that particular primary.”
Our arbitration
X Post said Prevost is a “registered Republican.”
Prevost is registered to vote in Illinois, where voters do not register with the party’s affiliation. However, they declare their affiliation of the parties when they vote in the primary election. County records show that the Prevost, voted in three Republican primary elections from 2012 to 2016, is the most recent record we have obtained.
Still, the Illinois Election Commission says when voters took part in the primary, they were not formally registered with the parties.
No one has been registered by Illinois party affiliation, and there is little evidence for Prevost’s lifelong voting history.
The statement contains elements of truth, but critical facts are ignored. We value it almost as a falsehood.
Politifact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact check.