The VA GOP has not drifted right. Potts is a leftist. He's pro-tax, anti-gun, and pro-abortion. The only reason he keeps getting re-elected is he calls for open primaries as the nominating process, and all the D's in his district come out to vote for him, since VA doesn't registery voters by Party affiliation.
We're working on trying to get party registration and closed primaries here in VA now. As a member of the Republican Party of Virginia State Central Committee, I supported and voted for a measure that will hopefully lead to it. We know we can't get it through the state senate with people like Potts and Chichester there who will do whatever they can to keep the Ds voting for them in primaries. We're hoping that some recent legal precedents elsewhere in the U.S. will get the courts here to enforce our constitutional right of freedom of association by granting us the right to hold closed primaries which will necessitate party registration.