Seven-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney declared victory Wednesday morning with unofficial results showing him leading by about 75,000 votes with more than 98% of the votes tallied.

“It is the honor of a lifetime to represent eastern Connecticut, and I am deeply grateful that the voters of our region have given me the chance to represent them again in the upcoming 117th Congress,” Courtney said in a statement issued Wednesday morning.

The Democratic incumbent from Vernon faced Republican Justin Anderson, ​Green Party candidate Cassandra Martineau​ and Libertarian ​Daniel Reale in the largely rural 2nd District, which covers eastern Connecticut.

Unofficial results from the Secretary of the State's Office showed Courtney with 214,889 votes, Anderson with 139,295, Martineau with 4,854, and Reale with 3,856 with 100% of votes tallied. Write-in candidate John M. Traceski got seven votes.

Early returns showed a tight rice between Courtney and Anderson early into election night, but as absentee votes began to be counted, the results shifted significantly in Courtney's favor.

"With unprecedented turnout and a significant number of mail-in ballots to count last night, I waited to comment on the outcome until our hard-working local election officials had the time they needed to count the votes and record the voice of the voters of our district and state," he said Wednesday.

Courtney, 67, himself, chose to vote absentee this year. This was the first election in which any Connecticut voter could cast an absentee ballot, given the COVID-19 pandemic.

Anderson, 49, of East Haddam won in a close primary against Tom Gilmer, the GOP-endorsed candidate, who was arrested on the eve of the primary election on domestic violence charges, to emerge as the Republican challenger to Courtney. Anderson, a lieutenant colonel in the Connecticut National Guard and a retired correctional officer, said Wednesday he'd hoped the race had been closer and felt his views more align with the people of the 2nd District. He said he plans to run for the seat again in two years, when he'll have more name recognition.

Courtney, who was seeking an eighth term, was first elected to Congress in 2006, beating former Rep. Rob Simmons, a Republican, by only 83 of the 242,000 votes cast. He hasn't faced a tough opponent since. In 2018, he also won by about 75,000 votes against Republican challenger Daria Novak.

"Eastern Connecticut is home to hard-working men and women, and to families and front-line workers who have shown a tremendous amount of grit and smarts in the face of COVID-19," he said. "They deserve a representative in Washington who works as hard as they do, and whose top priorities reflect the needs of our region and the people who call it home. I am committed, as I have always been, to working across the aisle to find a path forward on the most pressing needs for folks in eastern Connecticut — from finding bipartisan solutions to lower the cost of (health care), to continuing our surge in manufacturing jobs and growing our economy, to supporting our veterans, securing more resources to help people through the economic fallout of COVID-19, and more."

In his statement, Courtney thanked election officials and volunteers for their work to "ensure that this totally unprecedented election was conducted faithfully," and his opponents for running campaigns "that were focused on the issues at hand for eastern Connecticut."

j.bergman@theday.com