New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are turning to any means necessary in hopes of jump-starting their fledgling 2016 GOP presidential campaigns in the critical, early voting state of New Hampshire.

If that means using guilt in their run to overtake party front-runner and political neophyte Donald Trump, so be it.

"America is counting on you," the New York Times reports Christie recently lectured potential supporters during a town hall gathering in the state. "There's 14 of us today. You all will take us from 14 to four or five. And those four or five are the only ones Americans are going to have to choose from other than Hillary Rodham Clinton. You have enormous responsibility."

Not long after at a town hall in nearby Alton, Bush took a similar approach when he reminded voters, "New Hampshire has a special place in our democracy. I, for one, will entrust the voters of New Hampshire to make this decision disproportionately more than any other place. I'm totally confident that you all will maintain your position as first in the nation, that you will be discerning about this."

In recent polling, bombastic Trump leads his closest competitor by double digits. Still, controversy has surrounded much of his run for the Oval Office, generated by such boasts as he would easily deport some 11 million immigrants if elected and a contention that Muslims should be banned from freely traveling in the U.S.

It all has some wondering just how presidential the former "The Apprentice" show host will be seen by general election voters and seemed to be the underlining message both Christie and Bush were attempting to hammer home.

"I think what I'm saying to them is, it would be a shame for the country if New Hampshire makes the wrong choices," said Christie. "Guilt was a frequently used weapon of my mother. So some of it just comes out naturally."

Bush told Granite State voters they hold all the answers, adding, "The question is will New Hampshire want to support a guy who might tarnish this extraordinary reputation that you have, which is first-in-nation status, where you make people walk through the hot coals each and every time they come, where you challenge people, where you help them learn how to get better at doing this.