Congressman Lou Correa is a longtime Orange County resident, with deep local roots. To this day, he lives only three miles from his childhood neighborhood in Anaheim. He is the son of working-class parents whose hard work gave him a chance at success. Lou has spent his career fighting to protect the American Dream, and ensure anyone can reach the middle class, just as he did. When Lou was young, his mother cleaned hotel rooms across from Disneyland, and his father held a manufacturing job at a paper mill. Through hard work, Lou's parents gave him access to better education than they had, and a path to the middle class. 

Lou credits his success to his education and the Anaheim public school system where he attended Benjamin Franklin Elementary, Fremont Junior High, and Anaheim High School. Lou graduated from California State University, Fullerton with a degree in Economics. Always striving for more, Lou returned to college and earned his Juris Doctor (JD), and Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

After college, Lou used his education to become a banker, attorney, and licensed real estate broker. His time in the private sector prepared him to compromise and find real solutions to everyday problems.

In 1996, Lou ran for the California State Assembly. Lou lost that election, but he returned in 1998 and won, becoming a voice for the middle class families in Orange County. 

Over the next decade, Lou would serve Orange County on the Orange County Board of Supervisors and the California State Senate.