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."

In a follow-up interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Tennessee, Corker said Moore’s defeat “was best for our country, was best for the Republican Party and certainly best for the United States Senate.”

“Obviously, I hate to lose a seat that almost any Republican could have won,” he said. “And obviously, it makes it more difficult on our side of the aisle to govern with one less seat. But I think under the circumstances, it certainly was a good outcome for our country, for Republicans in general and the United States Senate.”

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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 faced 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, said Moore should drop out of the Senate race if the allegations against him are true.

Corker also criticized Moore at the time, saying that even before the allegations of sexual misconduct, he had been “a bridge too far” for the GOP. Corker did not, however, call on Moore to drop out of the race.

In the interview Wednesday, Corker said it had been obvious that Moore had no intention of getting out of the race. Given the anti-establishment mood of the electorate, he said, he chose not to ask Moore to drop out because he worried that his comments might help Moore by emboldening his supporters.

“That’s why I think the outcome that occurred was the best, and that was that the voters of Alabama decided,” he said.

Corker praised Alabama’s senior senator, Republican Richard Shelby, who said the people of Alabama could do better than Moore. Shelby encouraged voters to write in another candidate and said he cast an absentee ballot for another Republican, whom he did not name.

Corker said he talked to Shelby on Wednesday, “and I know he’s very happy with the outcome.”

“It’s a shame we ended up in the circumstances we did,” Corker said. “But, again, I think for the good of the country, for the good of Republicans and for the good of the Senate, the right thing happened.”