It had to have some impact. Last year, during a hotly contested Democratic primary campaign, Rawlings persuaded her father to endorse Baltimore's new Democrat mayor, Martin O'Malley. Stephanie set up a meeting between her father and the young councilman, which many credit with securing the elder Rawlings' endorsement, a significant factor in electing the white O'Malley in majority-black Baltimore. After O'Malley ran on a platform of aggressive policing to bring down the crime rate, he appointed a black police commissioner to carry out the plan, something the community supported. It is that type of racial politics and grandstanding that Rawlings rejects.
Some people are just interested in being heard, being seen, making a stink.
It doesn't take much to make a sign. What takes work is getting what you want done. And that's what Rawlings says she will continue to do, in the tradition that she inherited from her parents and found reinforced at Oberlin. Whatever makes people care enough to be active and think they can do better, is found at that school. Rawlings herself declines to speculate on her political future, other than to say she'll serve as long as she's elected and urge others to get involved as well.