Days after Denver made the list of 20 finalists for Amazon’s new headquarters, Gov. John Hickenlooper tempered expectations about the bid, saying that if the tech giant picked another location, “I’m not going to cry.”

“There will be a sense of relief if they choose somewhere else because there are a lot of challenges and lot of hard work we will be avoiding,” Hickenlooper told the City Club of Denver on Tuesday in response to a question about Amazon.

The Democrat is one of the state’s chief recruiters in the effort to bringthe Seattle-based company’s $5 billion second home to the Denver area, and he acknowledged the sentiment is a controversial one, particularly as other locations gush about the potential investment. “Nobody tweet that,” he quipped after his remarks.

Hickenlooper said the state is “legitimately and sincerely” pursuing the company and later clarified in an interview that he thinks the bid’s pros outweigh the cons. “I wouldn’t pursue it if I didn’t think it’s the right thing,” he said.

Read full story at The Denver Post.

Separate customer doors for “White,” left, and “Colored” at a cafe during tobacco auction season in Durham, N.C., in November 1939. Photo by Marion Post Wolcott/Library of Congress via Creative Commons

Library of Congress; The Crowley