As North Carolina’s GOP redistricting plan seeks to pick up another seat for Trump, Democrats are trying to think long term.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Democrats rallied Tuesday against a new U.S. House map proposed by North Carolina Republicans that would likely pick up another GOP seat at the request of President Donald Trump, but critics acknowledged they likely won’t be able to stop the redrawing for now. But they vowed to defeat it in the long run.

The new map presented by Republican legislative leaders seeks to stop the re-election of Democratic Representative Don Davis, one of the three black representatives in North Carolina, by redrawing two of the state’s 14 congressional districts. Statewide election data suggests the proposal — which received final Senate approval and was cleared by the House Redistricting Committee on Tuesday along party lines — would favor Republicans winning 11 of those seats, up from the current 10 they hold.

Read more: The North Carolina Republican Party announced plans to vote on a new House map amid a nationwide redistricting battle

With Republican majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly and state law preventing Democratic Gov. Josh Stein from vetoing the redistricting plan, the GOP-drawn map appears headed toward legislation after a final vote in the House on Wednesday.

The gerrymandering changes attempt to meet Trump’s call for Republican-led states to conduct mid-decade redistricting to gain more seats and retain his party’s grip on Congress in the 2026 midterm elections. Democrats need to pick up just three more seats to take control of the House, and the president’s party has historically lost seats in midterm elections.

However, about 300 protesters, Democratic Party officials and lawmakers who gathered outside the old state Capitol repeatedly vowed Tuesday that redrawing the congressional map would have negative consequences for the GOP at the ballot box in 2026 and beyond. A lawsuit is also likely to challenge the map legislation over allegations of illegal racial gerrymandering.

“We know we may not have the power to stop Republicans in Raleigh now… but we are here to show that people across this state and across this nation are watching,” North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Anderson Clayton said to cheers.

The Democratic caucus served to censure state Republicans whom they accuse of agreeing to bow to Trump by corruptly redrawing district lines to target Davis.

Read more: Missouri lawmakers are joining Trump’s redistricting efforts as the GOP seeks to win more U.S. House seats

State GOP leaders defended their actions, saying Trump won the state’s electoral votes all three times he ran for president — albeit by narrow margins — and thus deserved potentially more support in Congress.

The national redistricting battle began over the summer when Trump urged Republican-led Texas to redistrict its U.S. House districts. After Texas lawmakers moved, California Democrats responded by passing their own plan, which still needs to be approved by voters in November.

Republicans argue that other Democratic-leaning states already gave themselves a disproportionate number of seats long before the national redistricting battle began.

“It is incumbent on us to react to this environment, respond to this environment, and not let these tactics that have occurred in blue states dominate congressional control,” state Sen. Ralph Hice, the map’s lead author, said during Tuesday’s Senate debate.

Several speakers at the Democratic caucus angered the crowd over what they criticized as a quick and unfair redistricting process deliberately designed to take away the seat that Davis won by less than 2 percentage points in 2024.

Texas Rep. Nicole Collier, who participated in a two-week legislative protest in her state opposing pro-Trump redistricting, encouraged attendees to vote in the upcoming election and to make sure others they know will do the same.

“Everyone should be disturbed, but not deterred,” Collier said.

Democrats claim the proposed map creates racial gerrymandering that would undo decades of progress in voting rights for those living in what is known as North Carolina’s “Black Belt” region.

“Shame on this General Assembly, shame on North Carolina for silencing the will of the people of northeastern North Carolina,” former Democratic U.S. Rep. Eva Clayton told the House Redistricting Committee. Clayton, 91, became the first black member of Congress to represent North Carolina in 90 years with her election to the 1st District in 1992.

Republicans oppose such fraud not occurring. They said no racial data was used in drawing the districts and there is no significant legal evidence of racially polarized voting that would justify drawing 1st District boundaries with race as the overriding consideration.

“The purpose of this map was to capture a seat for the Republican Party. We’ve stated that over and over again,” Hisey said.