[2][3] He lived in St. Paul until age 15, when his family moved to Virginia, Minnesota, a city on the state's Mesabi Iron Range.

[3] Gazelka attended Roosevelt High School there and then Oral Roberts University in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in business management.

[3] He was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2005 to 2007, elected from District 12A, which covers portions of Crow Wing County, including the city of Brainerd.

[6][3][10] The Star Tribune called Gazelka "the most socially conservative person in modern times to serve as Minnesota Senate majority leader.

"[4] But in 2017, upon becoming majority leader, Gazelka said that he intended to focus on transportation, health care, timely passage of a state budget, and tax cuts, and to avoid contentious social issues.

[11] In 2017, soon after he became majority leader, Gazelka brokered deals with Democrats for state/federal tax code reconciliation and short-term relief for individuals with high health insurance premiums.

He also pressed for expedited budget committee deadlines, expressing a desire to avoid a repeat of the 2011 Minnesota state government shutdown.

[9] More recently, he blocked proposals to ban "conversion therapy" for minors in Minnesota, though he has said that he did not support "coercive or aversive counseling.

[16] In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests, Gazelka and Minnesota Senate Republicans blocked most police reform proposals put forth by Governor Tim Walz and the Democratic-majority state House.

[23] Gazelka led Republicans in blocking a Democratic proposal to require face coverings in public areas of the State Capitol.

"[23] In a statement, Gazelka said the event had been legal according to guidelines at the time, and called for an end of the "blaming and shaming" of Senate Republicans for hosting it.

[35] Gazelka's and Daudt's refusal to acknowledge that Trump lost the election fairly was criticized by Democratic Governor Tim Walz as "some pretty epic gaslighting.

At the May 2022 state Republican convention, Scott Jensen won the party endorsement, defeating four other candidates: Gazelka, Lexington Mayor Mike Murphy, businessman Kendall Qualls, and dermatologist Neil Shah.

[3] Gazelka and his wife sent one of their five children, who came out as a lesbian as a teenager and later identified as bi-gender, to the counseling practice of Marcus Bachmann, an anti-same-sex relationship psychologist.

[12][38] Amid a subsequent Minnesota Senate debate over a proposal to ban conversion therapy, Gazelka's child (now an adult) described the practice as a form of psychological "harassment" she called "tantamount to torture.

"[9][38] Active in his church, Gazelka wrote a memoir, Marketplace Ministers: Awakening God's People in the Workplace to Their Ultimate Purpose, describing his religious beliefs and career in the insurance business.