
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.
Elite Convergence
Henry Olsen
In its rush to convict the educated Left, a new book overlooks the important complicity among certain elites on the Right in the plight of non-college-educated, native-born Americans.
Articles
National Review - April 6, 2015 issue / April 10, 2015
Whose Republicans?
Henry Olsen
Today’s conservatives must follow Reagan’s example and reapply their principles to meet today’s economic and political realities.
Articles
The American Interest - March/April 2015 issue / March 4, 2015
The Submerging Democratic Majority
Henry Olsen
If Republicans want to take hold of an “emerging Republican advantage” in future elections, they must present a positive image of the party that incorporates healthy respect for private initiative with an eagerness to make government work for the average person and the struggling person.
Articles
National Review Online / February 9, 2015
Jeb’s Prospects
Henry Olsen
The establishment agenda Jeb Bush seems poised to offer is strikingly out of step with the voters who will decide the 2016 Republican nomination and the general election.
Articles
National Review - January 26, 2015 issue / January 23, 2015
The GOP’s Entitlement Challenge
Henry Olsen
Conservative Republicans should recognize the very real difficulties that working-class voters face and seek to devise innovative ways to address them. Doing so would address the GOP’s decades-long empathy gap and recover the party’s historic role as the natural home for the American worker.
Articles
The National Interest, January/February 2015 issue / December 17, 2014
A Victory to Last
Henry Olsen
Conservatives who want to prevent history from repeating itself with yet another Democratic victory in 2016 should learn from previous failures to capitalize on big GOP waves.
Articles
National Review - December 8, 2014 issue / December 5, 2014
Best Shot for GOP in 2016? Look to the Governors
Henry Olsen
To win in 2016, Republicans need to rely on a model of positive governance that suits the public mood better than the liberal or conservative models Washington has on tap.
Articles
New York Post / November 17, 2014
The Election and What It Means
Henry Olsen
A forecast for Election Day 2014 – and a look at how conservatives and Republicans should put the lessons this midterm teaches to good use in 2016.
Articles
National Review Online / November 3, 2014
Voters Aren’t Buying
Henry Olsen
The GOP must offer a pro-growth message that appeals to Americans who already think the economic system is rigged for the rich.
Articles
The Weekly Standard / October 30, 2014
If Ronald Reagan Were Alive Today…
Henry Olsen, Peter Wehner
Conservatives eager to lay claim to Ronald Reagan’s legacy would benefit from a fuller understanding of the principles that made him so effective.
Articles
Commentary Magazine / October 27, 2014
Forget the Alamo
Henry Olsen
Ronald Reagan knew that victory can come only by assembling a coalition of people, not all of whom will agree on every topic. Conservatives today would do well to remember this.
Articles
National Review / October 27, 2014
Why Sweden’s Election Matters for American Conservatives
Henry Olsen
In light of electoral trends in Sweden and around the world, the challenge for American conservatives is to see the opportunity they have to form a center-right majority and seize it while they can.
Articles
National Review Online / September 16, 2014
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