Ruy Teixeira, Henry Olsen, "The 2020 Election: What to Expect? Who will Win? What's at Stake?"

Notre Dame - Constitutional Studies Lectures

A virtual conversation with Henry Olsen and Ruy Teixeira, prominent pollsters and political commentators on different sides of the aisle, on the 2020 election. Event took place on October 29, 2020. About the speakers: Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist focusing on politics, populism, and American conservative thought and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Olsen began his career as a political consultant at the California firm of Hoffenblum-Mollrich. After three years working for the California Assembly Republican Caucus, he returned to school to become a lawyer. Following law school he clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and as an associate in the Philadelphia office of Dechert, Price & Rhoads. He then joined the think tank world where he spent the next eighteen years as an executive at a variety of institutions, serving as the President of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Vice President at the Manhattan Institute, and as Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. He left AEI in 2013 to pursue a career in political analysis and writing at EPPC. During that time his work has appeared in variety of leading publications in America and the United Kingdom. He is the author or co-author of two books, “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism” and (with Dante J. Scala) “The Four Faces of the Republican Party”. His biennial election predictions have been widely praised for the uncanny accuracy, and he is a frequent guest on television and radio programs. Olsen regularly speaks about American political trends and global populism in the United State, Europe, and Australia. Ruy Teixeira is a senior fellow at American Progress. He is also co-director of the States of Change: Demographics and Democracy project, a collaboration that brings together the Center for American Progress, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Democracy Fund's Voter Study Group and demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution. The goals of the project are to document and analyze the challenges to democracy posed by the rapid demographic evolution of the United States from the 1970s to the year 2060 and to promote a wide-ranging and bipartisan discussion of America’s demographic future and what it portends for political parties and the policy challenges they—and the country—face. His most recent book is The Optimistic Leftist: Why the 21st Century Will Be Better Than You Think. His other books include The Emerging Democratic Majority; America’s Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters; The Disappearing American Voter; and Red, Blue, and Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics. Teixeira’s book The Emerging Democratic Majority, written with John Judis in 2002, was the most widely discussed political book of that year and generated praise across the political spectrum, from George Will on the right to E.J. Dionne on the left. It was selected as one of the best books of the year by The Economist. Teixeira’s recent writings for American Progress include “America’s Electoral Future: The Coming Generational Transformation” and “The Path to 270 in 2020”. Recent essays include "Can Biden Hold the Democrats Together?" (Wall Street Journal) and "Demography Is Not Destiny" (Persuasion). A complete list of recent publications can be found on his website, The Optimistic Leftist, where he also blogs regularly. Teixeira holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.