Jack Trammell is vying to become the first graduate of Grove City College to serve in Congress.

He is going after Virginia’s 7th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which most recently was held by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. Cantor surprisingly lost to challenger David Brat in the Republican primary on June 10.

A Democrat, Trammell was nominated by the party two days earlier, on June 8, to seek the seat.

Trammell is a professor and the director of disability services at Randolph-Macon College in Virginia. Brat also is a professor at the college.

“When he signed up, he was expecting to run against Cantor (and not a colleague),” his father, Richard Trammell, said.

Trammell, who now lives on a farm near Mineral, Va., grew up in the Grove City area, and his father, Richard, taught philosophy at the college from 1971 to this year, and his stepmother, Catherine, taught French at the college. Richard and Catherine live in Liberty Township, Mercer County.

Although the college is generally known for political conservatism, Michael Coulter, a political-science professor there, said it does not exclusively attract Republican students.

“Not everyone is here because they are conservative or because the school is conservative,” Coulter said. “People come for a variety of reasons (such as academic programs).”

He said the college has a College Democrats group, but it is small.

Trammell, 50, attended the college from 1982 to 1986, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science.

On his campaign website, Trammell noted that he experienced a “de facto ban” from the student newspaper because of moderate views. This sentence has since been changed on the website, now saying that he worked for the Democratic cause while at the college.

Richard Trammell said he is fairly moderate, and that may have rubbed off on his son. He also said that the college is not a hard core right wing kind of place.

“Grove City itself is not extreme conservative,” he said. “They understand that there are different points of view in the conservative tradition.”

He said his son is not an extreme liberal but also is not a Tea Party conservative.

Coulter, who started attending the college as a student in 1987, said he has seen copies of the student paper in which Trammell wrote letters to the editor. In one, he said Trammell self-identified as a Democrat. He said, from what he has heard, the “ban” was enforced by student editors, not administrators.

Coulter also grew up in the Grove City area. He said that Trammell was in a musical group called Syd Sustain, which played new wave music. Coulter recalled owning one of the group’s albums on cassette.

Although no member of Congress has graduated from the college, Coulter said that there have been several graduates who have served in state government in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Currently, state Rep. Mark Mustio, R-44th, representing western Allegheny County, is the only graduate in the state Legislature.

Even a Democrat from the college is not that unusual. From 2001 to 2010, graduate John Pallone of New Kensington represented the 54th state House District as a Democrat.

Although he is not an expert in Virginia politics, Coulter said that looking at how a district voted in a presidential election can be helpful. He noted that the 7th District overwhelmingly voted for Republican challenger Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama in 2012.

Richard Trammell said he wishes his son good luck, and feels he could be trusted to try to do the right thing, not to listen solely to interest groups and lobbyists.

“I feel he would always try to do what is best,” he said.

Jack Trammell, who has not typically responded to media requests, also has a master’s degree in history education and a doctorate from Virginia Commonwealth University.

A writer, Trammell has published more than 21 books. According to his publishing website, jacktrammellbooks.com, he currently is working on a novel about vampires.

He and his wife, Audrie, have seven children.