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.
What Is America’s Role in the World Now?
Henry Olsen
Trump opponents left and right believe the system of alliances and interlocked global trading networks that America created—at its insistence—after World War II continues to work in America’s interests. These men and women may be right, but they have a tiny little problem: increasing numbers of Americans disagree.
Articles
American Greatness / July 25, 2018
What Liberals (Still) Get Wrong About Trump’s Support
Henry Olsen
The data clearly show that President Trump’s political coalition is pretty much the traditional Republican coalition. And the often virulent behavior of anti-Trump partisans has made partisan Republicans especially unwilling to abandon their leader even when he stumbles.
Articles
The Guardian (UK) / July 24, 2018
Red-State Challenge
Henry Olsen
Very few Democratic Senate incumbents in Trump-carried states should feel safe despite their early poll advantages. Most will have to fight hard against the pull of their states’ Republican tendencies.
Articles
World Magazine / July 20, 2018
NeverTrump Bait and Switch: They Hate the Ideas, Not the Man
Henry Olsen
NeverTrump Republicans face a time for choosing. The data clearly show that a return to the Republican Party and conservatism of 2000 is not possible, either within the GOP itself or in the nation at large.
Articles
American Greatness / July 12, 2018
The NeverTrump Dilemma
Henry Olsen
NeverTrump Republicans must confront the fact that on issue after issue they are in the minority within their own party.
Articles
American Greatness / June 27, 2018
Ohio Tea Leaves
Henry Olsen
Forecasts for the upcoming midterm elections rely primarily on the generic congressional ballot poll, but an August special election for a House seat in Ohio might tell us more about the eventual outcome.
Articles
City Journal / June 25, 2018
Unforced Errors Drag Down the Greatness Agenda
Henry Olsen
The polls in President Trump’s case are clear: some of the aggressive tactics that thrill his supporters alienate those whom he could persuade.
Articles
American Greatness / June 13, 2018
A Plan for Fiscal Hawks
Henry Olsen
Republicans who want spending restraint probably represent only about 10 to 15 percent of the total Republican-voting electorate, but without their support Republicans cannot win. That gives the fiscal-restraint advocates a strong hand to play, if they play it correctly.
Articles
National Review - May 28, 2018 issue / May 31, 2018
Gaslighting Themselves: Why Trump Critics Miss the Obvious
Henry Olsen
It’s not just that President Trump’s opponents find him odious at best and dangerous at worst: it’s that they have little to no sense of why people might disagree with them and why the president’s ultimate demise is far from the smug certainty they assume it is.
Articles
American Greatness / May 30, 2018
Republicans’ Millennial Problem Isn’t What You Think
Henry Olsen
Republicans who want to modernize their party rightly point to the GOP’s weakness among millennials as a target area for improvement. But the prescription will only work if the diagnosis is correct.
Articles
City Journal / May 29, 2018
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