For Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, campaigning for president is a family effort, said his son, Marshall, who was in Ames campaigning Wednesday.

Gramm, who just graduated from Rice University, is using the time before graduate school at Texas A&M University to crisscross the country rousing support for the campaign.

Gramm said that despite press reports portraying his father as the underdog, his family is confident that the grassroots support they are rallying spell success.

“We are going to surprise a lot of people,” he said.

The interest in economics that made Sen. Gramm famous seems to be a family tradition. Both of Gramm’s parents hold doctoral degrees in economics, and his younger brother has declared economics as his major.

Being the son of a senator doesn’t mean dinners with Bob Dole every night, Gramm said.

“My parents don’t bring politics home,” he said. “It’s nice to get away.”

Despite the fact that his father is a politician, Marshall said he finds other ways to be active in civic circles than pure politics. As an undergraduate at Rice, he was active on some student government committees and an athletic committee.

Gramm said he always encourages voters to get out and participate in the election process, even if they don’t support his father.

With the election race heating up, he sometimes wishes he had taken a year off before going to graduate school.

Gramm said that no matter what the outcome of the election is, he probably won’t ever live in the White House.

“If you were 24, would you like to live at home with your parents?” he said.