By GARY D. ROBERTSON

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s legislature formally began redrawing the state’s congressional district map Monday, plainly stating their intent to help Republicans gain another U.S. House seat under President Donald Trump’s push to retain his party’s grip on Congress next year.

The state Senate gave initial approval along party lines to enact new boundaries for two eastern North Carolina districts in a move aimed to thwart the reelection of Democratic Rep. Don Davis , one of the state’s three Black members of Congress. That followed a committee meeting in which dozens of speakers from the public sharply accused Republican lawmakers in the ninth-largest state of bowing to Trump.

The plan’s chief author was direct about the map’s intent to help his party in t

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