Legally blind Bend sled-dog racer launches bid for Congress

A legally blind Bend woman who drew worldwide attention over a decade ago for her competition in Alaska’s famed Iditarod sled-dog race announced Monday she’s entering a far different sort of race, with its own big challenges: a bid for Congress, to unseat veteran Rep. Greg Walden.

Rachael Scdoris-Salerno, a 32-year-old Democrat, filed paperwork Monday with the Federal Elections Commission, a statement of organization about her intention to run for office next year.

“I am a team player and a leader,” she said in a post Monday to her campaign’s new Facebook page. “I am going to Washington to get something done.”

Scdoris-Salerno said she’s frustrated with politicians representing special interests.

While she promised more specifics on major topics later, Scdoris-Salerno wrote, “I am not going to Washington to continue the representation of the millionaires and billionaires around the U.S. that Greg Walden is representing on the backs of Central, Eastern and Southern Oregon families, small business owners, farmers and ranchers and taxpayers.”

Scdoris-Salerno, born with an uncorrectable visual disorder, also has engaged in cross-country running, and competed in four Iditarod races with a “visual interpreter,” and also has engaged in cross-country running and went to the Paralympics in tandem cycling. She has worked through much of her life with father Jerry Scdoris in a sled-dog ride business at Mt. Bachelor, and two years ago bought the business, all the while caring for the dogs that pull the sleds.