Former Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka is jumping into the Republican field for Minnesota governor, hoping to parlay his prominence as the lone conservative blockade to Democrats in state government to become the party's nominee next fall.
Gazelka, a four-term senator from East Gull Lake, made his long-anticipated run for governor official on Wednesday surrounded by supporters at the Capitol, where he's served as the Republican caucus leader for the past five years.
During his time in leadership, Gazelka brokered budget deals with Democratic governors and DFL leaders in control of the state House, but he's also been a vocal opponent of tax increases proposed by Democrats. He trained his fire on DFL Gov. Tim Walz and closures of businesses and classrooms during the pandemic and criticized the first-term governor for his response to civil unrest last summer that left businesses destroyed.
"Tim Walz says he wants one Minnesota, but I've never seen Minnesotans more divided, angry and afraid than they are today," Gazelka said. "Is that the road we want to go down?"
Walz, a former teacher and DFL congressman from Mankato, is expected to run for a second term in 2022, but he's made no formal announcement yet.
Gazelka recently stepped down as majority leader and is one of more than a half dozen Republican candidates in the race. His Republican colleague Sen. Michelle Benson and former Sen. Scott Jensen, as well as Lexington Mayor Mike Murphy, businessman Mike Marti and Dr. Neil Shah have also announced a run for governor.
Republicans have been shut out of the governor's office since 2011 and have failed to win any statewide office since former Gov. Tim Pawlenty was re-elected in 2006. Gazelka said he's trying to break that streak by building support among delegates and lawmakers in formerly blue turf on the Iron Range, including former DFL Sen. Tom Bakk, now an independent from Cook. He said some Democrats in Minneapolis are also turned off by a ballot initiative that would replace the city's police department with a new public safety agency.
But Democrats were quick to attack Gazelka as the chief obstacle to a number of top progressive priorities over the years, including a push for more police-reform measures last session and new gun restriction laws. In a statement, DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin criticized Gazelka for holding a postelection event last year where the family of the late Sen. Jerry Relph believe he contracted COVID-19 and later died.
