This sort of thing is common in politics. Elected officials find some victim that will gain sympathy with voters and than push ill considered legislation to get their name associated with it.  It is a cliché in Hawaii that legislators do things for the "Kapuna" or the "Keiki" as a way of shutting out an honest discussion of the problems with their bills.  This is the legislative learning environment Ms. Gabbard has come from.  I don't know this woman and can't speak to what is going on inside her head. I will say newspaper reports indicate she is pushing some legislation aimed at helping sex trafficking victims, that doesn't seem to indicate she has talked to anyone in the sex worker's rights movement.