Laurie, like so many Californians, wasn’t born here. She visited California multiple times as a child, and it was during those trips she knew she wanted to live here as soon as she could. Laurie was born in Wisconsin, where she and her three brothers and one sister were raised by her parents Richard and Lois Davies. Her parents instilled in her the value of hard work and the importance of family. After graduating high school, she worked for a year, and in 1981 after saving enough money to buy a Cutlass Supreme, she moved west to attend Cal State Long Beach.
Laurie does not believe that the state should be involved in projects that would needlessly tear communities apart or impact homes and businesses in the community. All our infrastructure projects should focus on allocating our resources to traffic relief, and she would oppose spending those resources on projects that do anything else.
At the same time, we need to make sure that there are enough routes for people to evacuate in an emergency. Laurie kick-started this effort on the Orange County Transportation Authority by supporting a project to widen the Ortega, a one-lane road on an important route. As our population continues to increase east of Highway 5, we need to make sure we have the infrastructure necessary to meet demands in an emergency.