 In 2006, she defeated Tan D. Nguyen (R) with 62% of the vote.During California's 2003 gubernatorial recall election, Sanchez was one of the first Democrats to break from Governor Gray Davis and state that a Democrat should run to succeed Davis in case the recall measure passed.Though she recommended that the Democratic candidate be California's senior Senator Dianne Feinstein, Sanchez stated that if no other serious Democratic contender stepped forward, she would be willing to run herself.