In May 2025, immediately after the completion of the conclave, the information that the new Pope was the Republican. We checked the reliability of such publications.
Messages about the party affiliation of the new Pope, which became the American Cardinal Robert Francis Extra, spread over the network on May 8. They reported that the Catholic hierarch in August 2023 was registered in the Oball of the Illinois County as a supporter of the Republican Party of the United States. Posts about this published 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) and others.
Pope Francis He died April 21 at the age of 88. May 8 Conclave chose The new pontiff of the American Cardinal Robert Francis executed, who accepted the name of Leo XIV. He was born in the USA, but for a long time lived in Peru and has citizenship of this country. Leo XIV, who was the first dad from North America, called By church standards, the centrist - in some matters, he is considered a rather progressive successor to Francis, in others, on the contrary, he occupies a more conservative position than his predecessor.
At the same time, bloggers who wrote about the political preferences of the new pontiff are sure: he will be a rather traditionalist leader, since he was registered as a supporter of the US Republican Party. As proof, they give a screenshot from a certain site where the name Robert F. Ekstrost is indicated, his date of birth (she coincides With the date of birth of Pope Leo XIV), in the column "Party" there is a republican one, and in the column "Registered" - the date of August 15, 2023.
This screenshot for the first time Published In the social network X American conservative blogger Charlie Kirk. He wrote that his team checked the story of the voting of the chosen pope and found out that he was a registered republican who, during his stay in the United States, voted on the primaries of this party. Kirk also posted three other screenshots - with data on the participation of church hierarch in republican primaries and elections themselves. The last image states that Leo XIV adheres to a conservative ideology.
How Writes The Factsing Politifact project, the screenshots that Kirk laid out are made in the service L2 Data. This is a closed paid one database With detailed information about American voters.
In his tweet, Kirk calls Leo XIV a registered Republican (Registered Republican). The fact is that in the United States (with the exception of Northern Dakota) voters Obligated Pre -register if they plan to give their vote in certain elections. IN more than half States during this procedure of voters They askWhether they support one or another party. “When registering for voting, you do not have to join a political party or disclose your party preferences,” - Emphashes On the site USA.gov. Subsequently, party affiliation can be changed.
The same USA.gov website says: “Your party affiliation is usually important only on primaries. In many states, closed primaries are held. This means that you can only vote for your party’s candidates for its primaries. ” In some states, for example, in the native to the new Pope Illinois, Conducted partially open preliminary elections (some resources They call them completely open). This meansthat on the site the voter must say, on the primaries of which party he wants to vote, and only after that he will receive the ballot. Illinois election commission explains: When voters participate in primaries, they are not officially registered in any party and in the next preliminary elections they may declare the changed preferences.
Moreover, in Illinois, voters during registration Do not require indicate party affiliation. “In Illinois, the voter officially never declares his party affiliation. However, when you vote in preliminary elections in Illinois, you must request a ballot of one of the parties nominating candidates. Your choice becomes part of your voting history, and anyone who views your voting story can see that you voted in preliminary elections and which party you pulled out, ” - explained In the commentary of Lead Stories, the representative of the press service of the state election commission Illinois Matt Dietrich. At the same time, voting on primaries does not mean that in the main elections the voter will give preference to the candidate from the same party, and information about whom he voted in both cases, Strictly confidential.
The fact of the Politifact project Notesthat, although in the profile of the extension on the L2 Data website, affiliation with the Republican Party is indicated, it is unclear how the service defines it in the case of states such as Illinois, where voters do not provide relevant information during registration. According to the Okrug authorities, to which Politifact turned to the comment, the party’s party affiliation is indicated as “not declared”.
CBS journalists asked A copy of the data presented in the L2 Data database in the office of this district. According to local authorities, extensively voted three times on the primaries of the Republican Party: presidentials in 2012 and 2016, as well as before intermediate elections to Congress in 2014. However, before that, he twice participated in the preliminary elections of the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2010. At the same time, in the federal elections, the pontiff voted quite actively, missing only the presidential elections in 2016 and 2020, but, as mentioned above, the databases are not fixed, to whom he cast his vote.
Judging by the publications of extensions in social networks, it is quite difficult to call him an unambiguous supporter of the Republican Party. Until the election of dad he Share in X publications, criticizing Immigration policy of the current American administration. Moreover, the extension takes this position sequentially - back in 2015, a year and a half before the first presidential term of Donald Trump, he Published An article by the New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, where he called the anti-migrant statements of the policy problematic.
Thus, although the spread screenshots are true, on their basis it is impossible to draw reliable conclusions about the party affiliation of the new Pope. In the past, he voted three times on the primaries of the Republican Party of the United States, but in the state of Illinois for this it is not necessary to be its member or even a registered supporter. How Leo XIV voted in the elections themselves is unknown.
Photo on the cover: Wikimedia Commons
- The New York Times. Who is Pope Leo XIV?
- Politifact. Robert Prevost, The Roman Catholic Cardinal Who Was Chosen to Be the New Pope, IS A "Registered Republican"
- Lead Stories. Fact Check: New Pope Leo XIV is not "Registered Republican" - He Voted in Republican Primars voters Needn't Decels Affiliation When Registering
- Is the photo of the Bulletin from Texas Odessa, to which the voter entered Putin as a candidate for US presidency?
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