FRONT ROYAL, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — With less than a week until Election Day, the stakes are high in many state and local elections across the United States, including the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Mark Butler, a Virginia sheriff running for re-election, spoke exclusively to LifeSiteNews about his Catholic faith and the importance of protecting constitutional rights in the face of medical tyranny.
Butler was elected sheriff of Warren County, Virginia, in 2019 and served through the lockdowns and COVID restrictions.
Butler said that if he were re-elected sheriff, he would not enforce any future lockdowns.
“I believe most of us sheriffs in the Commonwealth of Virginia all agree on the same: we will protect the Constitution. Period,” he said. “If some of us are locked down or whatever, it’s not my job to say you can’t go out.”
Butler also said he refused to comply with a mandate from the county health department that forced him and his employees to receive the COVID-19 jabs.
“I refused to make my employees get vaccinated. I’m not vaccinated. I’m not going to be vaccinated, and that’s my constitutional right,” he said.
While the coronavirus mandates appear to have ended, the United Nations has advanced an implementation of the World Health Organization’s pandemic treaty, and the Biden administration continues with its COVID mandates.
Local officials, such as Sheriff Butler, who believe in upholding people’s constitutional rights seem to be the last guarantors in preventing the medical tyranny agenda from taking effect in our local towns and counties.
LifeSite journalist Dr. Maike Hickson shared in a blog article in June 2023 her gratitude for Butler’s common sense approach during the COVID pandemic.
“We in Front Royal have a lot of Catholics families, and thus many of the locals did not believe in the harsh, nonsensical ‘health’ restrictions that were imposed by the state and federal government upon us citizens,” Hickson said.
Hickson noted Butler’s public stance on the issue, which he stated in a January 2021 interview.
“In the middle of the lockdowns and coronavirus restrictions – Butler made it clear that he is a strong defender of the U.S. Constitution,” Hickson said. “He told the local media outlet Royal Examiner that ‘I believe 100% in the Constitution.’”
In the new interview, Butler did not shy away from talking about his Catholic faith and how it has guided him in his profession and personal life.
“I’m a very strong believer in trying to live my life and raise my family in accordance with the Constitution and the Ten Commandments,” Butler said. “And just like every sinner, I’m not perfect.”
Butler touched on the issue of human trafficking. He said he has spent many years fighting trafficking groups and was connected to Tim Ballard, the founder of Operation Underground Railroad, whose work inspired the recent film Sound of Freedom.
“We were both working for HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] at the same time. I spent a good six to eight years infiltrating human trafficking groups, and it’s the second largest profitable criminal enterprise out there. Everyone in the world can fall victim to human trafficking,” Butler said.
“What a lot of people don’t understand is most people who are human trafficked don’t even realize they’re being trafficked until they’ve already been trafficked, and most law enforcement officers have no idea how to even identify [it],” he said.
Around 2012, Butler started a firm called 3D Professional Training, whose purpose is to train law enforcement agencies in identifying human trafficking. He said that “it’s a scary thing, especially social media giving many people the tools to groom and take advantage of individuals that are very susceptible to that.”
Butler ended the interview by highlighting his record in fighting drugs and crime, protecting Second Amendment rights, and dealing with civil unrest.
“If people do their research and truly do their research on both candidates, they will see that I have fulfilled every campaign promise that I made,” he said. “I think we’ve done fantastic in the last three years – we can only do better.”
LifeSiteNews reached out to Butler’s opponent for comments. This article will be updated if a response is received.