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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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.
Santorum Campaign, Take II
Henry Olsen
Winning the Tuesday trifecta gives Rick Santorum a second chance to make a first impression. This will give him the momentum that his delayed Iowa victory could have given him.
Articles
National Review Online / February 8, 2012
Strong Night for Mitt Romney
Henry Olsen
Mitt Romney dispelled any doubts tonight whether he wants to be president badly enough to fight for it.
Articles
National Review Online / January 27, 2012
An Open Letter to the Members of the Super Committee
Henry Olsen
The country could save $100 billion or more over 10 years by reducing farm subsidies without endangering struggling farmers or affecting food production.
Articles
The Daily Caller / November 21, 2011
Losing the Working Class
Henry Olsen
Last week’s election indicates that the GOP marriage with the white working class is on the rocks. That’s bad news, since the epic Republican landslide in 2010 was fueled by record-high margins among these voters.
Articles
The Weekly Standard / November 14, 2011
Fiscal Issues Split GOP, White Workers
Henry Olsen
For decades, conservatives have won elections by wooing white, working-class swing voters with positions they approved of on crime, foreign policy and cultural issues. Economic growth allowed Republicans to expand most government spending programs while simultaneously keeping taxes stable. For both economic and political reasons, this balancing act is no longer possible.
Articles
The Hill / October 4, 2011
Dangerous Disaffection
Henry Olsen
Republican Jane Corwin’s defeat in New York is to Republicans what the election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts was to Democrats: a warning of impending disaster if the party maintains its course. Democrats in 2010 refused to see this, blaming their loss on poor turnout and a bad candidate. Republicans cannot make the same mistake.
Articles
National Review / June 28, 2011
A GOP Dark Horse?
Henry Olsen
Despite this election’s high stakes, however, the question of which candidate will bear the GOP’s standard remains shadowed in great uncertainty, owing mostly to the lack of an obvious frontrunner. Given these unusual circumstances heading into 2012, what kind of nominee should we expect? And what kind of nominee should Republicans want?
Articles
National Affairs / June 27, 2011
A Victory and a Warning
Henry Olsen
Wisconsin’s results do not mean conservatives should abandon entitlement reform, but they should expect an energized Democratic base that will fight with all its might. They will need to talk persuasively about what entitlement reform means, stressing that it is absolutely necessary to preserve the lifetime security that entitlements provide.
Articles
National Review / April 26, 2011
After the Wave
Henry Olsen
The results of the 2010 elections fail somehow to account for the continued difficulties that Republicans (at all levels of government) have had after past wave elections.
Articles
National Affairs / January 10, 2011
Where the Votes Are
Henry Olsen
What can we learn from last week’s House vote on the tax deal? Politicos calculate that important elements of both party bases are unhappy with the compromise, but that the vast American middle wants it.
Articles
National Review Online / December 17, 2010
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