WASHINGTON – Sen. Bob Corker said Wednesday he’s “really, really happy” about Democrat Doug Jones’ stunning upset victory over Republican Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate election.
“I know we’re supposed to cheer for our side of the aisle, if you will," the Chattanooga Republican told reporters, "but I’m really, really happy with what happened for all of us in our nation, for people serving in the Senate, to not have to deal with what we were likely going to have to deal with should the outcome have been the other way."
Jones, a former U.S. attorney, defeated Moore on Tuesday in a close special election to become Alabama's first Democratic senator in 25 years.
Jones won with a margin of not quite 2 percentage points, narrowly besting Moore, a controversial former Alabama Supreme Court justice who fought allegations that he had molested or pursued relationships with teenage girls in the 1970s when he was in his 30s and an assistant district attorney.
Following the reports, a number of prominent Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Tennessee senators Corker and Lamar Alexander, said Moore should drop out of the Senate race if the allegations against him are true.
“I thought before any of this reporting came out over the last couple of months with the Republican nominee that he was a bridge too far, just with his positions, the things that happened while he was on the bench,” Corker said Wednesday.
Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he tried to reach Alabama’s senior senator, Richard Shelby, Wednesday morning “to let him know how proud I am of his state and what he did.”
