Minn. Sen. Majority Leader Paul Gazelka at a press conference on Nov. 10, 2016. ( AP Photo/Jim Mone, file)

Minn. Sen. Majority Leader Paul Gazelka thinks he can run the state’s pandemic response better than Gov. Tim Walz. The task is especially difficult, as Minnesota recently led the U.S. in the 7-day infection rate. But how Gazelka managed an outbreak after a GOP dinner in November raises questions about his judgement and ability to steer the state through the pandemic.

Last November, Gazelka held a large, maskless dinner party with members of the Minnesota Senate GOP on election night while state was experiencing a second wave of the virus. The party lasted for hours, with many Republican state senators in attendance to celebrate the state GOP keeping its small majority in the chamber. Days later, it was clear the dinner became a COVID-19 superspreader event, with at least three senators and multiple state capitol staff members testing positive.

Gazelka announced that he tested positive ten days later, after he and his wife traveled via air to Florida for an out-of-state trip. According to his statement, he was symptomatic for almost a week prior, which includes the time the Minnesota Senate met for a special session.

Lead Senate Republicans, including Gazelka, reportedly did not share the news of the outbreak with Democratic-Farmer-Labor state legislators. The DFL members only learned of the outbreak through local news reports days after the special session concluded, already exposed to the virus.

The existence of the election night party itself was not announced until Gazelka tested positive. Gazelka also admitted in an email to FOX 9 that he first contacted the party’s venue of the outbreak after he tested positive—also ten days after the party.

Four senators, including Gazelka, tested positive after the party. Sen. Jerry Relph, a 76-year-old outgoing Republican senator from St. Cloud, died a month later due to complications from COVID-19.

Gazelka never directly apologized for the party or his or the state party’s response to it. Although he said the party “could have handled the event and our information sharing differently,” he justified the decisions saying that the state’s future “cannot be prolonged isolation, face coverings, and limited activities.”

The day before Relph died, Gazelka called for Walz to lift COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants in the state.

“I don’t regret that we had the celebration,” Gazelka told Chad Hartman of WCCO 830. “The Republican majority was the number one target to switch from Republican to Democrat.”

Last July, Gazelka prematurely claimed “the emergency part of this pandemic is over” and claimed in Aug. 2020 that mask mandates were not effective at decreasing the positivity rate in Minnesota. While speaking on the Senate floor, Gazelka would refuse to wear a mask.

“There should be no mandatory indoor face mask requirement in public places. People would be asked to follow CDC guidance that suggests wearing a mask in congested indoor areas. Business owners could ask people to wear masks inside if they wanted,” Gazelka said in September 2020.

To date, Minnesota has suffered nearly 900,000 COVID-19 cases, resulting in over 9,000 deaths as of Nov. 24.

Austin Linfante contributed to this story.