He became a leader of the Farmers' Alliance and won election to the North Carolina Senate as a member of the Democratic Party.

During the 1892 election, he led a group of North Carolina Democrats opposed to Grover Cleveland into the Populist Party.

When the Farmers' Alliance movement spread from the Southwest into North Carolina in the late 1880s, Butler immediately joined the organization.

Possessing the formal education and experiences from his years at the University of North Carolina, Butler stood out from his fellow farmers.

[3] Butler obtained national prominence in the 1896 United States presidential election when he orchestrated a compromise between Democrats and Populists.

Butler lost his bid for re-election in 1900, however he would remain the national chairman of the People's Party until 1904 when he would officially become a Republican.

[4] During his time as Senator, Butler received his law degree from the University of North Carolina, and after his electoral defeat in 1904, practiced law in Washington, D.C.[1][3] He married Florence Faison of Sampson County on August 31, 1893, and they had five children: Pocahontas, Marion, Edward F., Florence F., and Wiley.

[1] The former Senator died in Takoma Park, Maryland in 1938, and was buried at Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Clinton, North Carolina.

Progressive historians, who tend to look favorably on the goals of the Populist Movement in general have often discarded Butler's fusionism, silver-backed currency and emphasis on white supremacy as being "un-Populist".