Becky Sundin Mitchell wasn’t always a Democrat.

She grew up in a household with a staunch Republican father who worked as a school teacher. She was a Republican, too, and credits her father for her love of education. But over time, she felt that the party on the other side of the aisle was doing a better job of supporting education. 

She said she became disheartened with how Republicans spoke about teachers like her, painting them all with a broad brush. She changed her voter registration to the Democratic Party after the general election in November 2020, according to her Canyon County voting record.

Last week, Sundin Mitchell filed to run as a Democrat for Idaho superintendent of public instruction. She will run against Republican Debbie Critchfield in November. Critchfield is seeking a second term. Constitution Party candidate Teresa Roundy is also running.

Sundin Mitchell is a relative political newcomer who’s taught only in small charter schools, has never held an administrative position — and she wants Idaho’s top education job.

“We’ve had a superintendent who has tried to do what’s best for education, and she’s someone that is very likable,” Sundin Mitchell said. “I’ve met her. I like her. But we have just failed education in so many ways, especially in funding.”

She said it’s time for an educator to be the state superintendent again, and the letter at the end of the name shouldn’t make a difference. She said she is a moderate.

“Politics doesn’t need to be a part of education,” Sundin Mitchell said. “Education just needs to be about educating students and helping them be better citizens in their communities.”

A longtime educator who has taught in Idaho charter schools with hundreds of students, and never a district with thousands, Sundin Mitchell was named the 2018 Idaho Teacher of the Year. She no longer teaches and works part time for a research company.

As teacher of the year, she travelled the country as an ambassador for the Gem State. She took a trip to Washington, D.C., visited the White House during President Trump’s first term, and met with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and staffers for Idaho’s congressional delegation.

She touted the Idaho Opportunity Scholarship program and the innovation found in Idaho charter schools, while also imploring the federal leaders to continue investing in students. She said the folks in D.C. were interested in talking to someone “in the trenches,” who sees what teachers face every day.

“It’s those skills that I would bring to the superintendent job, as you learn how to help lawmakers understand what it’s like to be in the classroom,” she said. “They don’t know. The last classroom they were a part of, they were in themselves.”

Education and experience

Sundin Mitchell said her love of chemistry was sparked in high school, with a teacher who was “on fire.”

“I had one of those teachers that inspires you,” she said.

With that love in mind, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in chemistry education in 1998 from Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, a Master of Science in science education from Montana State University-Bozeman in 2005, and a Doctor of Education from Walden University in 2022.

Originally from Baker City, Ore., she taught at Blue Mountain Community College and Baker Middle School before moving to Idaho in 2009.

She then taught science and English for 14 years at Vision Charter School in Caldwell, from 2009 to 2023, and helped train other teachers. Seeking a new adventure, she worked as an instructional coach at Elevate Academy in Nampa, a charter school that focuses on career and technical education, for two years from 2023 to 2025.

“Unfortunately, I did my job too well,” Sundin Mitchell said of her work at Elevate. “The teachers were sailing on their own. And so I set off looking for my next adventure.”

She took a part-time, remote job in November with artificial intelligence research company Sepal AI, where she helps train AI for the field of education. In December, she became chair of the Canyon County Democratic Party.

Finding her voice

During her tenure as teacher of the year, she said she learned how important her voice is.

“And I knew I wanted to use that voice,” she said.

A few years ago, she met with local Democratic Party leaders and asked what path she should take if she wanted to be in the Legislature, or be the state superintendent.

“They said, ‘try a small race,'” Sundin Mitchell said.

She took her first foray into politics in 2023 with a run for Caldwell City Council, where she finished last of three, with 1,236 votes, or 29.68%.

Through that campaign, she said she learned how to be a listener. She would ask people what they want to see in a city council member.

She wants to bring that experience to her campaign for state superintendent, by hosting listening sessions across the state with educators and families. She said she wants to hear what Idahoans think about education, what needs to be preserved and what needs to change.

Last summer, Sundin Mitchell took the first step to running for the Legislature. As a Democrat, she declared a campaign treasurer for District 10 House Seat B, held by Rep. Bruce Skaug, R-Nampa.

But she has since terminated that campaign and has turned to the superintendent race.

“Sometimes the stars align, and now that I have this part-time, virtual work, I have the time to dedicate to a campaign,” she said. “So it was really the perfect time to step up and run for state superintendent.”

Running for superintendent

Sundin Mitchell said she made the decision to pursue the superintendent position within the last couple of months.

Through her role as party chair for the Canyon County Democrats, she was working on finding candidates for other seats, which she said brought her into conversations with the Idaho Democratic Party. She said Party Chair Lauren Necochea recently asked her to run.

In a Monday interview, Necochea said she came across Sundin Mitchell’s background in education and approached her to see if she is interested in running.

The Idaho Democrats had been talking to a “number of people in a fluid situation” and Necochea said they had someone who they thought would run, but ultimately didn’t.

“There were a couple of people that we were going back and forth with, and this is how it shook out,” Necochea said. 

In December, Necochea told EdNews the Democrats would prioritize the race for superintendent and said, “I think if we get someone going in January, that’s enough runway.”

But the party did not meet that deadline. Necochea said Sundin Mitchell committed to run just days before the filing period opened on Feb. 23.

With a Democrat in the race, Necochea said she is really glad to have a former Idaho teacher of the year going up against Critchfield.

“We need a strong advocate for kids, not a slick politician,” Necochea said.

Sundin Mitchell faces a large fundraising discrepancy.

Critchfield’s campaign has a cash balance of $187,179, according to Idaho Sunshine. Sundin Mitchell declared a campaign treasurer on Sunday and has not reported any fundraising.

Her campaign stumbled out of the gate last Thursday with a confusing press release from the Idaho Democratic Party.

The release represented her academic background incorrectly, claimed she had “served on commissions,” and was vague on her experience in the classroom, including her current employment. Sundin Mitchell and the Democrats have since cleared up the confusion through a corrected press release, a full curriculum vitae and in communications.

She said she was appointed by former state superintendent Sherri Ybarra to serve on the Region 17 Comprehensive Center Advisory Committee from 2020 to 2023 and the REL Northwest Governing Board from 2020 to 2021.

“I gathered these roles under the term ‘commissions’ as I was appointed and represented the Superintendent as my official duty,” she wrote in an email to EdNews.

Being the storyteller

The state superintendent has several duties, one of which is preparing — and defending — the state’s education budget.

Sundin Mitchell said her experience as a science teacher will help her do that. Teaching chemistry, physics and engineering required her to take complicated issues and boil them down in a way that the audience can understand.

“It’s something I know that I have all the skill sets for,” she said. “And I’ll bring alongside the people who are very good at funding formula sheets, for example, and can do the backside of that, so that I can come and be more of the storyteller.”

Working in small schools also required her to wear a lot of hats, she said.

She was on the leadership team at Vision Charter School and helped decide how the school would address new laws from the Legislature.

“That’s the other thing that I would love to give lawmakers a perspective on is what happens at a school level when something like that comes down, all the things that that affects, and how you could make that easier on schools just with the language of the bills,” she said.

Before she took the plunge into the state superintendent race, Sundin Mitchell said she sat down with her family — two sons and a daughter, all adults — and had a conversation. They were all on board with her decision.

“They’re proud of Mom and they’re excited that I’m going to take this step,” she said.