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.

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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 GreatnessCity Journal, and World Magazine. Mr. Olsen’s work has been featured in many prominent publications, including The New York TimesThe Wall Street JournalNational ReviewThe 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.

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The Republican Future

Henry Olsen

The Republican base is mostly white evangelical Christians, but it can grow through appealing to the educated affluent, the working-class nonevangelical faithful, or minorities.

Articles

NewMajority.com / February 25, 2009

The Forgotten Entitlements

Henry Olsen

Social Security and Medicare are not the only out-of-control federal entitlements.

Articles

Policy Review / February 1, 2009

American Values Post-Recession Will Be Dictated by the Downturn’s Course

Henry Olsen

Issues of security and prevention may soon displace the politics of tolerance and opportunity.

Articles

NewMajority.com / January 22, 2009

What Would Reagan Do?

Henry Olsen

This is not the first time that conservatives and Republicans have stared into an electoral abyss.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / November 11, 2008

Lieberman Would Be a Bad Veep Choice for McCain

Henry Olsen

As Lincoln showed, a “war ticket” is not the formula for lasting success.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / August 28, 2008

Europe Has an Economics Lesson for Obama

Henry Olsen

Sen. Barack Obama is visiting a Europe that, over the past decade, has very quietly embraced many market-based reforms.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / July 19, 2008

Look to Sweden?

Henry Olsen

Without much fanfare, some of Europe’s social democracies have jumped ahead of the United States on market-based reform.

Articles

The American / February 26, 2008

The GOP’s Time for Choosing

Henry Olsen

In deciding how to react to the Huckabee challenge, Reagan’s GOP descendants now face a unique choice.

Articles

Wall Street Journal / January 5, 2008

Courting Lady Liberty

Henry Olsen

Charles Fried’s new book is a welcome defense of liberty, but it fails to clarify the foundations of liberty.

Articles

Azure / January 1, 2008

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