Butler's first political campaign was for Roanoke City Council in 1958, and he lost. However, in 1961, Butler became the first Republican to represent Roanoke in the Virginia House of Delegates since 1901. In the widespread upset over closing of Virginia's public schools because of U.S. Senator Harry F. Byrd's vow of Massive Resistance to the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Brown v. Board of Education, Butler defeated veteran Byrd Organization Democrat Julian H. Rutherford Jr., who had served since 1948.
