Meet the woman who gifted Ron DeSantis a ‘fascist’ snowflake. It’s not the first she’s made.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was gifted a hand-cut snowflake at a book-tour stop in Iowa last week. He posed with the artist who made it, grinning. But upon closer look, the paper snowflake had a word embedded within it: “fascist.”

A photo from the exchange has gone viral on social media, but the artist says she’s been doing this to politicians for years.

Julie Ross, a volunteer English teacher based in Davenport, Iowa, who raises monarch butterflies on the side, began attending the Iowa Straw Poll and other local political events in 2012. A self-described progressive, Ross made it a goal to hear both Democrat and Republican candidates speak as often as possible and to ask them questions. In return for their time, she’d leave them with a little souvenir.

“In 2016, I made it a goal to hear every Republican [presidential] candidate, ask them a question, and get a selfie with them. I got about 15. I decided to take advantage of the access,” she said. “When it came time for Trump, I knew he wasn’t taking questions. So I decided to cut him a whole stack of snowflakes with words you probably can’t publish.”

Ross, who describes herself as a “craftivist,” made a handful of paper snowflakes for Trump, cheating the lewd ones behind seemingly innocuous designs. Over the years, she’s made similar snowflakes for politicians including former presidential candidate and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) — each time taking smiling photos and presenting them with her creation.

“Originally, I would put dummy ones on top,” she said. “But then, I realized they can’t read them anyway.” But, she said, that’s not a slight on any politician. The words are intricately laced into the snowflakes like an optical illusion. Sometimes, it takes a moment to figure out what the design is.

Ross got her start making snowflakes around 2008 while working at a local children’s museum.

“Part of the activity was teaching the kids to fold and cut a proper six-pointed snowflake,” she said. “I’m not an artist, but I have really nice handwriting. The first word I did was ‘peace.’ But I have a gutter mind and figured out I can put any word in there.”

Her designs aren’t just reserved for Republicans. She’s made it a challenge to snowflake and selfie any politico she meets.

Sometimes, she’ll cut a representative’s first name into their snowflake. Other times, a relevant word. She gifted Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) a snowflake with “persist” cut into it.

For family members, she made snowflake T-shirts and mugs. She’d cut hearts and names into baby announcements.

“It’s not all malicious,” she said. The art usually takes about 10 minutes per snowflake.

Prior to DeSantis, Ross only recalls one snowflake going semi-viral: the one she made for Grassley.

She wore a RAYGUN T-shirt — a progressively-minded Iowa-based company with Pennsylvania ties — that said “Dear America, Sorry About Charles Grassley. Sincerely, Iowa,” underneath her button-down. When it came time for the photo, she gifted him a snowflake with the word “shame” and unbuttoned her blouse.

She expected a big reveal. Instead, “nobody noticed and he was still studying the snowflake.” Ross published photos on her private Facebook page and it gained mild traction online.

This time was different.

On Twitter, a friend of Ross’ reposted her selfie with DeSantis and the snowflake with the caption, “please look at the snowflake carefully.” It garnered more than 14,000 likes. Another tweet from an audio freelancer posted photos of Ross and her “fascist” snowflakes alongside DeSantis and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds. It collected more than 40,000 likes.

In the replies, people praised Ross as a “hero.” RAYGUN also took notice.

With her approval, the company is selling four shirts with snowflake designs. They say: “BEWARE OF FASCIST SNOWFLAKES,” “FROM IOWA WITH LOVE,” and “SHARP SCISSORS MAKE NASTY SNOWFLAKES” alongside the artist’s designs.

Proceeds from the shirts will benefit causes RAYGUN supports including the NAACP, the Chicago Teacher’s Union, and the News Literacy Project.

Ross said she has one hope: more bipartisan turnout on the campaign trail.

“When I went to see DeSantis and Kari Lake, there were no other Democrats,” she said. “I think it’s more divisive. I hope Democrats do go and listen to Republicans. Not to cause trouble, but to ask questions. There should never be any trouble — except the good kind, I guess.”