Hillary Clinton won the national popular vote. Donald Trump won the White House.

The contradiction is generating renewed interest across the nation for an effort to elect the president by a national popular vote within the Electoral College.

Colorado holds a special place in the debate. More than a decade ago, the state Senate became the first legislative body in the nation to pass a national popular vote bill, according to the organization leading the effort.

The 2006 measure never won final approval, but with new vigor after the 2016 election, 10 Democratic lawmakers brought forward a similar bill Wednesday for an hours-long hearing that drew plenty of Trump critics.

Unlike the first effort, the measure did not advance beyond a Republican-led committee, where it died on a 3-2 party-line vote.

Under Senate Bill 99, Colorado would have awarded its nine electoral college votes to the candidate that wins the most votes nationwide, rather than the one that receives the most votes in the state. In the case of the 2016 election, Clinton won both.

“I feel it’s important that every single vote that is cast should have equal weight,” said Sen. Andy Kerr, a Lakewood Democrat sponsoring the bill.

If states with a collective total of 270 electoral votes were to do the same, the national popular vote effectively would decide the winner without a constitutional amendment. So far, 11 states have passed national popular vote laws, totaling 165 electoral votes. Most of the states are led by Democrats, and none are swing states.

The office of Republican Secretary of State Wayne Williams expressed concerns that the measure would dilute the state’s vote and raise integrity concerns, such as other states that may allow felons to vote, which were echoed by GOP lawmakers.

Former state lawmaker Polly Baca, one of the state’s Democratic electors who sued to challenge the current system, testified in favor of the bill. “There is only one elected position in our democracy that does not honor the democratic principle of one-person-one-vote, and that is the president of the United States,” she said.

Another measure the Senate State Affairs committee heard Wednesday would have prohibited state officials from promoting relatives to a salaried position in the same agency — a direct response to Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner joining his administration. It also failed on a party-line vote, with Republicans in opposition.