Alabama's senior senator said Sunday his party "can do better" than support Roy Moore in Tuesday's special election, but sidestepped questions about whether he personally believed the Senate should block his potential counterpart from serving or conduct an ethics investigation into Moore should he win.

"I didn't vote for Roy Moore. I wouldn't vote for Roy Moore. I think the Republican Party can do better," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., told CNN's Jake Tapper.

Shelby wrote in a "distinguished Republican" on his absentee ballot instead of Moore, who is being supported by President Donald Trump and the GOP.

Moore's campaign has been battling allegations that he engaged in sexual misconduct, harassment or dated women when they were teenagers in the 1970s when he was an assistant district attorney in Etowah County, with the youngest alleged victim being 14 years old at the time. Moore has denied the allegations and claimed that they were politically motivated.

Shelby said he believes the women, and pointed out Sunday that his former counterpart, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said he had no reason to doubt Moore's accusers.

"A lot of smoke, there's got to be some fire there," Shelby said.

Alabama's senior senator deferred to his party's leadership about whether Moore should be seated or if the Senate Ethics Committee should investigate the allegations.

"The Senate's going to have to weigh, if Roy Moore wins, his fitness in the United States Senate," Shelby said.

Meanwhile, Moore campaign chief political strategist Dean Young said he believed the Senate would not conduct a probe into Moore.

"Judge Moore's going to go to Washington, Judge Moore is going to win, and I highly doubt there's going to be a Senate investigation," Young told ABC's Martha Raddatz on Sunday. "If there is [a Senate investigation], Judge Moore is going to be found telling the truth, just like he always has, and he will win. The stakes couldn't be higher for Alabama."