In May 2025, immediately after the end of the conclave, information spread that the new Pope was a Republican. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.

Messages about the party affiliation of the new Pope, who became the American Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, spread across the Internet on May 8. They reported that the Catholic hierarch registered in Will County, Illinois, in August 2023 as a supporter of the US Republican Party. Posts about this were published by Telegram channels “Alexey Shevtsov"(230,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Sheikh Tamir"(108,000), "Oleg Tsarev"(92,000), "Mardan"(77,000), "Anatoly Nesmiyan"(71,000), "Hedgehog"(65,000), etc.

Pope Francis passed away April 21 at the age of 88. May 8 conclave elected the new pontiff of the American cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who took the name Leo XIV. He was born in the USA, but lived for a long time in Peru and has citizenship of this country. Leo XIV, who became the first pope born in North America, called by church standards, he is a centrist - in some issues he is considered a rather progressive successor of Francis’ policies, while in others, on the contrary, he takes more conservative positions than his predecessor.

At the same time, bloggers who wrote about the political preferences of the new pontiff are confident that he will be a rather traditionalist leader, since he has registered as a supporter of the US Republican Party. As proof, they cite a screenshot from a certain website, where the name Robert F. Prevost is indicated, his date of birth (she matches with the date of birth of Pope Leo XIV), in the “Party” column is Republican, and in the “Registered” column is the date August 15, 2023.

For the first time this screenshot published on social network X, American conservative blogger Charlie Kirk. He wrote that his team checked the pope-elect's voting history and found that he was a registered Republican who voted in the party's primaries while in the United States. Kirk also posted three other screenshots - with data on the participation of the church hierarch in the Republican primaries and the elections themselves. The last image indicates that Leo XIV adheres to a conservative ideology.

How writes fact-checking project PolitiFact, screenshots posted by Kirk were taken in the service L2 Data. This is a closed paid database with detailed information about American voters.

In his tweet, Kirk refers to Leo XIV as a registered Republican. The fact is that in the United States (with the exception of North Dakota) voters obliged pre-register if they plan to vote in a particular election. IN more than half states during this voter procedure askwhether they support one party or another. “You do not have to join a political party or disclose your party preference when registering to vote,” emphasized at usa.gov. Party affiliation can subsequently be changed.

The same usa.gov website states: “Your party affiliation usually only matters in primaries. Many states have closed primaries. This means that you can only vote for your party's candidates in its primaries." In some states, for example in the new pope’s native Illinois, are carried out partially open primaries (some resources they are called completely open). This means, that at the polling station the voter must declare which party primaries he wants to vote in, and only after that he will receive a ballot. Illinois Elections Commission explains: When voters participate in primaries, they are not officially registered with any party and may declare changed preferences in the next primary.

Moreover, in Illinois, voters when registering don't require indicate party affiliation. “In Illinois, a voter never officially declares his or her party affiliation. However, when you vote in the Illinois primary, you must request a ballot from one of the parties nominating candidates. Your choice becomes part of your voting history, and anyone viewing your voting history can see what you voted in the primary and which party's ballot you pulled." explained in a comment to Lead Stories, spokesman for the Illinois State Election Commission Matt Dietrich. At the same time, voting in the primaries does not mean that in the main elections the voter will give preference to a candidate from the same party, and information about whom he voted for in both cases strictly confidential.

Fact-checking project PolitiFact notesthat while Prevost's profile on L2 Data lists his Republican Party affiliation, it's unclear how the service determines it in states like Illinois where voters don't provide relevant information when registering. According to Will County officials contacted by PolitiFact for comment, Prevost's party affiliation is listed as "undeclared."

CBS journalists requested a copy of the data submitted to the L2 Data database from the county clerk's office. According to local authorities, Prevost voted three times in the Republican primaries: presidential in 2012 and 2016, as well as before the midterm elections for Congress in 2014. However, before that, he twice participated in the Democratic primary elections in 2008 and 2010. At the same time, the pontiff voted quite actively in the federal elections, missing only the presidential elections of 2016 and 2020, but, as mentioned above, the databases do not record to whom he gave his vote.

Judging by Prevost’s publications on social networks, it is quite difficult to call him a clear supporter of the Republican Party. Before being elected pope he shared in X publications, criticizing immigration policy of the current American administration. Moreover, Prevost consistently takes this position - back in 2015, a year and a half before Donald Trump’s first presidential term, he published an article by New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, where he called the politician’s anti-migrant statements problematic.

Thus, although the screenshots being circulated are true, they cannot be used to draw reliable conclusions about the party affiliation of the new pope. He has voted in Republican primaries three times in the past, but in Illinois you don't have to be a member or even a registered supporter to vote. How Leo XIV voted in the elections itself is unknown.

Cover photo: Wikimedia Commons