
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 a full archive of Mr. Olsen’s writings.
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.
From 2019–2023, Mr. Olsen was an opinion columnist for The Washington Post, where he wrote 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 taught as the Thomas W. Smith Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at Arizona State University for the Winter/Spring 2023 semester. He has taught at Villanova University, the Catholic University of America, and the Hillsdale College D.C. Graduate Studies Program.
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.
For Trump Voters, There is No Left or Right
Henry Olsen
Donald Trump has won what might be the greatest “change election” in decades. Republican leaders are only now waking up to the fact that the change Trump’s voters want will end up changing the GOP, too.
Articles
Washington Post / November 18, 2016
Behind Hillary’s Defeat: Her Pathetic Appeal to Undecided Voters
Henry Olsen
The reasons for Trump’s path to victory were hiding in plain view all along for anyone with the eyes to see.
Articles
New York Post / November 14, 2016
Why I Disagree with Most National Polls: My 2016 Final Predictions
Henry Olsen
The race is not over, though Clinton is favored, but a small movement in a key state could deliver a win to Trump.
Articles
National Review Online / November 7, 2016
Trump’s Faction
Henry Olsen
Its primary concerns are citizenship and nationality.
Articles
National Review - May 9, 2016 issue / May 11, 2016
Does a Conservative Reformation Loom on the Horizon?
Henry Olsen
We conservatives face our own rendezvous with destiny, our own time for choosing. We either face up to it and finish the work we have been bequeathed, to reform conservatism in line with all of its principles and transform a negative confederation into a positive federation, or we condemn our movement to “a thousand years of darkness.”
Articles
National Review - March 28, 2016 issue / April 7, 2016
The Right to ‘Mobocracy’
Henry Olsen
Many early Americans thought liberty was inextricably linked with property and thus wanted to restrict the vote to the well-to-do.
Articles
The Wall Street Journal / March 22, 2016
Super Tuesday Will Determine Whether Trump Can Be Stopped
Henry Olsen
Whether Ted Cruz can stay in the race after Tuesday is the single most important factor in determining whether Trump can win.
Articles
New York Post / February 29, 2016
An Agenda to Court Trump Supporters
Henry Olsen, James C. Capretta
Donald Trump’s opponents must confront him on his many reckless and false statements, his faux conservatism, and his appalling nativism and vulgarity. But the GOP must also offer a realistic alternative to Trump’s simplistic and counterproductive policy pronouncements.
Articles
RealClearPolicy / February 24, 2016
An Agenda to Court Trump Supporters
Henry Olsen, James C. Capretta
Donald Trump’s opponents must confront him on his many reckless and false statements, his faux conservatism, and his appalling nativism and vulgarity. But the GOP must also offer a realistic alternative to Trump’s simplistic and counterproductive policy pronouncements.
Articles
RealClearPolicy / February 23, 2016
How ‘The Stupid Party’ Earned Its Name
Henry Olsen
A new book explains how conservatism has become both unable to argue rather than assert and uninterested in persuading Americans who are not already true believers to join the cause.
Articles
The Weekly Standard / January 27, 2016
To Attract Disillusioned Voters, the GOP Must Understand Their Concerns
Henry Olsen
The constituency that is rallying to Trump is not fully conservative, but it shares more values with conservatives than do any of the other constituencies that could possibly be enticed to join our cause.
Articles
National Review - January 25, 2016 issue / January 21, 2016
Finding Iowa’s Cyclone
Henry Olsen
Just as John Edwards and Rick Santorum popped up out of nowhere to destroy the Presidential dreams of Dean, Gephardt, Gingrich, and Perry, so too might someone emerge this year to damage or destroy Ted Cruz’s, Donald Trump’s, or Marco Rubio’s dreams. Who might that person be, and can we predict their rise beforehand?
Articles
National Review Online / January 19, 2016
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