Overview
- The Vatican confirmed on Friday that Pope Léon XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost in Chicago, sent an absentee ballot from the Vatican to Chicago to vote in the 2026 U.S. midterms.
- Vatican officials framed the action as the pope exercising his rights and duties as a U.S. citizen rather than a public endorsement of any candidate.
- Public records cited by multiple outlets show Prevost has participated in past U.S. primary and general elections, including Republican primaries in 2012, 2014 and 2016, but there is no public record of whom he voted for this year.
- Reporting notes the vote gains political salience because Léon XIV has publicly clashed with President Trump this year over issues such as migration and foreign policy, though neither the pope nor the Vatican disclosed his ballot choice.
- Prevost holds dual U.S. and Peruvian nationality and spent nearly two decades in Peru, which explains his Illinois voter registration and use of an absentee ballot while serving as pope.