Josue Martinez, an artist and the owner of Adams Morgan art gallery and boutique Corinto Gallery, was relaxing and watching TV on Tuesday night when his phone suddenly lit up with messages.

“I must’ve gotten like seven different texts from friends and family telling me, ‘Hey, the mayor’s wearing your shirt,'” he says.

He flipped channels until he found the Democratic National Convention, and saw Mayor Muriel Bowser, who appeared alongside D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton and D.C. Council chairman Phil Mendelson, wearing his design featuring a masked George Washington, as she cast one vote for Sen. Bernie Sanders and 43 for the Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden.

“I was so surprised,” says Martinez.

The shirt immediately prompted tweets and posts on Reddit, as people asked where they could buy one. In the hours since her appearance, Martinez has received at least 25 orders, some for two or three shirts at a time. Martinez says that is roughly as many as he sold last month, as business slowed down in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

“I know she didn’t have to do that, but she did it,” says Martinez. “And I am grateful for that.”

From Black Lives Matter, Mayor Bowser announces that DC casts one vote for Sanders and 43 for Biden all while wearing a t-shirt of a masked George Washington. pic.twitter.com/MIA1WFYejd

— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) August 19, 2020

On Monday night, Michelle Obama’s “VOTE” necklace by Black-owned jewelry line BYCHARI, went viral, and its sales have skyrocketed in the days since.

Though the shirt’s design, which features the capital’s namesake wearing a red-and-white D.C. flag over his nose and mouth, is especially on-trend as face masks have become commonplace, it actually predates the pandemic.

Martinez says he got the idea five or six years ago, when he first opened the gallery, and wanted to make a shirt that could serve as an “I [Heart] New York” shirt for D.C. The artist, who moved from El Salvador to Prince George’s County when he was 10, decided to draw George Washington wearing the D.C. flag.

The mask over his mouth represents D.C.’s lack of voice in Congress, and the image was dubbed “Gangsta George,” as he saw Washington’s decision to retire after two terms and set a precedent for future commanders-in-chief as a “gangster move.”

Bowser told DCist in a statement, “The irony of the shirt is that it is a shirt about not being able to speak and therefore speaks for itself. The creatives at Corinto Gallery captured the sentiment of the 706,000 Americans who do not have a vote in Congress. In this election season, I fully endorse Washingtonians wearing this shirt.”

Martinez says he met Bowser when she came to an event at Corinto Gallery, which is named for Martinez’s hometown, four or five years ago, though she didn’t buy a shirt. However, Martinez later met Shawn Townsend, the city’s director of nightlife and culture, who bought one for himself.

When the shirt was stolen, Townsend came by to get another and said the mayor had asked him where hers was, so he bought it for her as a gift, according to Martinez.

Martinez works with a printer on the shirts, and sells a number of other D.C.-specific designs, including the D.C. flag stars and stripes as lightning bolts and a map of the city featuring its official flower, the American Beauty rose. The shirt features eight roses, one for each ward.

He says he always tries to keep the “Gangsta George” shirts in stock, and that he and his team of two other people at the gallery are ready to fulfill the incoming orders. And while Bowser used her screen time on Tuesday night to call for D.C. statehood, calling it “the best city in the world,” Martinez says the shirt’s design was motivated by his love for the District.

“D.C. never gets the proper respect due that it deserves when it comes to anything,” he says. Being an artist, he cites as an example other cities like Los Angeles and Miami that command more attention for their creative output. “And I’m like, ‘No, D.C., we have something here.”

This story has been updated to include a statement from Mayor Muriel Bowser.