Pope Leo XIV requested a mail-in ballot on 3 October, underwent surgery 10 days later to remove a cancerous tumour from his right lung, and left hospital on 17 October. Before the 3 November midterm elections, he submitted the ballot in Chicago from the Vatican.
The Vatican confirmed the vote on Friday. Leo is the first pontiff to vote in a United States general election.
Leo, formerly Robert Prevost, was born in Chicago and is registered at a New Lenox address in Illinois. Illinois voters were deciding whether to return Governor JB Pritzker for a third term and filling an open US Senate seat after the retirement of the longtime Catholic Democrat Dick Durbin.
The Vatican press office said Leo “has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen”, as he has done “whenever he was eligible to do so”. It added: “The Holy Father expresses his belief in the right and the duty of citizens to participate in democratic processes”.
Leo is a citizen of the US, Peru and the Vatican. He lived in Peru as a priest and bishop for more than 20 years before ascending to the papacy in May 2025. He now leads the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics from the Vatican as the first US-born pope.
His voting record in Illinois stretches back to 2000. As Prevost, he requested Democratic primary ballots in Cook County in 2008 and 2010. After moving to Will County, he requested Republican primary ballots in 2012, 2014 and 2016. In all, he voted in five primary elections, and submitted ballots in every general election since 2000 except those in 2020 and 2022.
The ballot comes after public clashes with President Donald Trump. Trump criticised Leo for repeatedly condemning the US-Israel war on Iran and for challenging his administration’s crackdown on immigrants. He called the pope “weak” and captive to the “radical left”.
Leo replied to reporters: “I'm not afraid of the Trump administration or of speaking out loudly about the message of the Gospel, which is what the church works for.”
John Prevost, the pope’s brother, was in Rome this week with parishioners from St. Jude’s, an Augustinian-run parish in New Lenox, Illinois. Leo spoke at St. Jude’s in 2024, when he was still a cardinal.
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