
Henry Olsen
Senior Fellow
Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
For media inquiries or to book Mr. Olsen for an interview, contact [email protected].
Click here to view the full archive of Mr. Olsen’s writings at The Washington Post.
Click here to view the full archive of Mr. Olsen’s writings at National Review Online.
Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.
Mr. Olsen is an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, where he writes daily pieces focusing on politics, populism, foreign affairs and American conservative thought. He is also the author of The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism and The Four Faces of the Republican Party, co-authored with Dante Scala.
Mr. Olsen is teaching as the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Arizona State University for the Winter/Spring 2023 semester.
Mr. Olsen was previously an editor at UnHerd.com and a regular contributor to American Greatness, City Journal, and World Magazine. Mr. Olsen’s work has been featured in many prominent publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Guardian, and The Weekly Standard.
His predictions of the 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 elections were particularly praised for their remarkable accuracy. In the 2016 campaign, he accurately identified the factors fueling the rise of Donald Trump early in the race, and his election-eve predictions were among the most accurate of any major analyst or commentator.
Mr. Olsen has worked in senior executive positions at many center-right think tanks. He most recently served from 2006 to 2013 as Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. He previously worked as Vice President of Programs at the Manhattan Institute and President of the Commonwealth Foundation.
Mr. Olsen started his career as a political consultant at the California firm of Hoffenblum-Mollrich. He then worked with the California State Assembly Republican Caucus before attending law school. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and as an associate at Dechert, Price & Rhoads. He has a B.A. from Claremont McKenna College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he served as Comment Editor for the University of Chicago Law Review.
U.S. conservatives have found an alarming model for their movement
Henry Olsen

American conservatives hungry for victory are increasingly looking overseas for a political figure around which they can model their political movement. Many are gravitating toward one man in particular: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Articles
The Washington Post / May 15, 2023
McCarthy’s debt plan needs an endgame. Here’s what it could look like.
Henry Olsen

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s budget and debt-limit plan is full of good policies, but it is more of an opening offer for…
Articles
The Washington Post / April 24, 2023
This Arizona town captures America’s deepening rural-urban divide
Henry Olsen

Arizona’s rapid transformation from a Republican bastion to a swing state is largely a story about the divergence between suburban…
Articles
The Washington Post / March 23, 2023
Republicans need a counteroffer to Biden’s Medicare fix
Henry Olsen

Olsen describes the tactics the GOP should use against the Biden Administration as a way to get leverage politically.
Articles
The Washington Post / March 8, 2023
The U.S.-Israeli alliance is getting testy. Don’t expect it to improve.
Henry Olsen

Olsen discusses the tense alliance between the U.S. and Israel. The Biden Administration is clashing with right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Articles
The Washington Post / February 20, 2023
Republicans must stop Biden from stealing their populist thunder
Henry Olsen

The working-class must stay a Republican group in order to combat Biden’s faux America First rhetoric
Articles
The Washington Post / February 9, 2023
How Ron DeSantis can secure his lead among GOP presidential contenders
Henry Olsen

DeSantis should use Florida’s legislative session to burnish his already formidable national identity.
Articles
The Washington Post / January 31, 2023
3 deficit-reduction ideas that Democrats might be able to support
Henry Olsen

The key is knowing what they can actually get, and then skillfully negotiating to obtain it.
Articles
The Washington Post / January 30, 2023
San Francisco shows how not to pursue slavery reparations
Henry Olsen

Change cannot come in a democratic society without the majority’s approval.
Articles
The Washington Post / January 26, 2023
Jacinda Ardern is right to leave office — before voters force her out
Henry Olsen

Ardern’s fans will likely always remember her tenure as a Kiwi version of President John F. Kennedy’s Camelot.
Articles
The Washington Post / January 20, 2023
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