Senior GOP Sen. Richard Burr Richard Mauze BurrRep. Mark Walker says he's been contacted about Liberty University vacancy Overnight Defense: Trump rejects major cut to military health care | Senate report says Trump campaign's Russia contacts posed 'grave' threat Senate report describes closer ties between 2016 Trump campaign, Russia MORE (N.C.) tells The Hill that losing one Republican vote in the upper chamber may result in a margin that’s easier for Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to manage.

“I’m not sure that Mitch is presented with anything different than having a 52-vote margin. A 51-vote margin might actually be easier to manage than a 52 vote,” Burr said in an interview when asked if McConnell would be appealing to incoming Democratic Alabama Sen. Doug Jones for a vote on tax reform.

“Hopefully, we've got tax reform done long before the certification of the Alabama outcome,” Burr added.

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Jones on Tuesday defeated Republican Roy Moore, who was plagued by accusations of sexual misconduct, to become the first Democrat sent to the Senate from Alabama in a quarter century.

Alabama’s senior GOP senator, Richard Shelby Richard Craig ShelbySenate GOP eyes early exit Dems discussing government funding bill into February GOP short of votes on Trump's controversial Fed pick MORE, warns that Jones won’t be persuaded to vote for Republican measures.

“Oh no, no, no, no, no. He’s a Democrat; he will be voting with the Democrats, he ran as a Democrat,” Shelby responded when asked if Jones would support conservative bills.

Shelby dismissed the notion that the incoming senator would act as a conservative Democrat similar to the House Democratic “Blue Dog” coalition.

Shaking his head, Shelby said, “I wouldn’t think so … I’ve known Doug Jones … he’s a staunch Democrat.”

Burr called the special election in Alabama a “great interim show,” and said 2018 should be a concern to Democrats.

“In ’18, one-third of the Senate is up and the majority of the senators that are up come from states that Donald Trump won and in some cases won pretty handily. I think Democrats are much more concerned with the outcome of the ‘18 elections then they are the outcome of a special election."