Marian Miner Cook
Athenaeum

A senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, Henry Olsen '83 is a scholar of American politics. Focusing on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges from the left and the right, he will provide commentary on American political trends in 2026 and beyond.

Henry Olsen '83 was previously columnist at the Washington Post and currently pens a weekly Post newsletter on the midterm elections, Margin of Victory. His work has been featured in many other prominent publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review, The Guardian, and The Telegraph. He is the author of The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism (Broadside Books, 2017).

His predictions of American elections since 2010 have been 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. In 2024, he accurately predicted that President Trump would win and noted he could even win the popular vote. Olsen regularly speaks about American political trends and global populism in the United State, Europe, and Australia.

Olsen has worked in senior executive positions at many center-right think tanks. Including as Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute, Vice President of Programs at the Manhattan Institute, and President of the Commonwealth Foundation.

Olsen has a B.A. in government from Claremont McKenna College and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Rose Institute of State and Local Government. 

Mr. Olsen's Athenaeum presentation is co-sponsored by the Open Academy at CMC.