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.
Blue-Collar Blues
Henry Olsen
Any attempt to make working-class voters a permanent part of a center-right coalition must start with a thorough, candid assessment of conservative ideology’s capacity to repel the working class as much as progressive ideology does.
Articles
Claremont Review of Books - Fall 2017 issue / January 18, 2018
Whatever Happened to Trump’s Populist Agenda?
Henry Olsen
The traditional Republican policy agenda is a political zombie, a relic that once served our nation well but is out of touch with what Americans want today. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Articles
New York Times / November 21, 2017
What Happened to the ‘Libertarian Moment’?
Henry Olsen
If liberty conservatives want to remain relevant in the GOP, they need to adapt. They also need to think seriously about how reductions in spending can be accomplished through a party whose voters are averse to it.
Articles
National Review - November 27, 2017 issue / November 21, 2017
Can Trumpism Survive Trump?
Henry Olsen
What is Trumpism after Trump, in domestic and foreign policy, and is it possible to imagine a new infrastructure that would champion populist and nationalist ideas within the party and make them something more than just angry anti-elitist gestures?
Articles
New York Times / November 14, 2017
Bannon’s Charge against GOP can Undercut Trump Himself
Henry Olsen
Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon’s campaign to unseat “establishment” Republican senators could remake the GOP — but not necessarily for the better.
Articles
The Hill / October 31, 2017
Most Republicans Wish They Were Like Reagan. Trump Actually Is.
Henry Olsen
Conventional wisdom tells us that Donald Trump is the antithesis of Ronald Reagan. But in fact, Trump is far closer to Reagan’s brand of conservatism than the Republican congressional leadership is.
Articles
NBC News - THINK / October 27, 2017
Q and A with Henry Olsen: A New Reagan
Henry Olsen
In a conversation with Law and Liberty, EPPC Senior Fellow Henry Olsen discusses his new The Working Class Republican and what today’s Republicans can learn from Ronald Reagan.
Articles
Law and Liberty / October 25, 2017
Cadillac-friendly Tax Plan?
Henry Olsen
Too many provisions in the GOP tax reform plan give the impression that the party cares more about helping the well-off than about aiding average Americans and their families.
Articles
World Magazine / October 18, 2017
Can the Parties Survive?
Henry Olsen
Going on a year since Donald Trump’s remarkable presidential victory, Republicans and Democrats are still struggling to understand what happened in November 2016 and what it means for the country’s future—and, needless to say, for the future of the two parties.
Articles
City Journal - Autumn 2017 issue / October 18, 2017
Don’t Forget High Earners
Henry Olsen
Upper-middle-income, college-educated whites are increasingly unhappy with a Republican party dominated by President Trump and his agenda. The current tax-reform proposals will drive them away at exactly the time their loyalties are being tested.
Articles
National Review - October 16, 2017 issue / October 17, 2017
Reagan Had a More Nuanced View of Constitution than Many Fellow Conservatives
Henry Olsen
As we celebrate this Sunday’s 230th anniversary of the Constitution’s signing, self-described constitutional conservatives might want to know what their political idol thought about our founding document.
Articles
Philadelphia Inquirer / September 11, 2017
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