Pope Leo XIV Votes in US Midterms
Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic Church’s first US-born pontiff, has voted in the United States midterm elections, submitting his mail-in ballot in Chicago, the Vatican said on Friday. It is the first known time a pope has voted in a political election, and the Pope Leo XIV votes announcement has drawn attention well beyond the Catholic world.
The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics believes in “the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes,” the Vatican said in a statement. The Chicago-born pontiff “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen, whenever he was eligible to do so,” it added.
“The Holy See Press Office confirms that in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago,” the statement said.
Why Pope Leo XIV votes made history
Popes are heads of state as well as heads of a church. They hold Vatican City citizenship and usually avoid acts that could be read as political alignment. Leo is different because he was born in the United States and kept his American citizenship after his election to the papacy. That combination makes his vote possible in a way it was not for his predecessors, none of whom were US-born.
Robert Francis Prevost, as he was known before his election, spent nearly two decades as a missionary, then bishop, in Peru. He holds both US and Peruvian citizenship. “The Holy Father has also confirmed that, during his years of residence in Peru he exercised his right to vote whenever he was eligible to do so,” the Vatican said.
A rift with Trump
A rift earlier this year between US President Donald Trump and the pope sparked global headlines. Leo and Trump repeatedly clashed over papal criticism of the harsh crackdown on immigration in the United States and of the war on Iran, with Trump calling the pontiff “weak” on crime and “terrible” on foreign policy. The pope said he was “not afraid” of Trump.
That history gives the vote a sharper edge. The crucial US midterm elections are scheduled to be held on November 3. The campaign has already seen disruption, with Trump cancelling rallies in Kansas and Iowa before the midterms. Elections elsewhere are also under close watch, from the final results in Israel’s election, which left no majority, to the wider fallout of the Hormuz tanker fires that deepened the Strait crisis.
The Vatican did not say which candidates or measures the pope supported. His ballot is secret, as any citizen’s vote should be. What the Vatican confirmed is the act itself: a sitting pope, voting by mail from Rome in his home city of Chicago, in an election that will shape the second half of Trump’s term.
What happens next
The midterms on November 3 will decide control of Congress and a string of state offices. The pope’s vote will not change the outcome, but it has already changed a small piece of history. No previous pope is known to have cast a ballot in a political election, and the Vatican’s decision to announce it publicly suggests the Church sees civic participation as a duty worth stating plainly, even at the risk of fresh friction with Washington.
The original report on the pope’s vote was published by Dawn.
Has any pope voted before?
No. The Vatican said this is the first known time a pope has voted in a political election.
How did Pope Leo vote?
He submitted a mail-in ballot in Chicago, his birth city, according to the Holy See Press Office.
When are the US midterm elections?
The crucial US midterm elections are scheduled to be held on November 3.
