New Hampshire Republicans peppered former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush with "feisty" questions about issues ranging from his family to immigration to Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama's nominee for attorney general, McClatchy's Washington bureau reported.

Bush, who is considered a near-certain candidate in the 2016 presidential election, on Thursday spent nearly an hour tackling the queries at the Concord Snowshoe Club, where he made the first of three scheduled stops in the state that traditionally holds the first-in-the-nation primaries.

Bill Doherty, a retiree from Franklin, New Hampshire, voiced his concern that if Bush were to move into the White House in 2017, he would be the third member of his family to occupy the highest office in the land.

Bush is the son of former President George H.W. Bush, who served from 1989 to 1993, and the brother of former President George W. Bush, who led the country from 2001 to 2009. And Doherty's query also related to Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner whose husband, former President Bill Clinton, occupied the White House between the Bushes.

"Why should only two families produce the leaders in our country?" the retiree wanted to know.

Bush tried to tackle the issue with humor: He could "break the tie between the Adams family and the Bush family," the former governor noted in reference to John Adams and his son, John Quincy Adams, who served as presidents in the 19th century.

Meanwhile, Bush insisted that he would not renege on his promise to support a path to legal status for certain undocumented immigrants, an issue that has haunted presidential candidate Marco Rubio.

"I'm not going to pull back," he reassured.

Another questioner, Charles Pewitt, though, sharply disagreed with Bush's relatively moderate views on immigration, CNN noted. "You're going to have a tough sell," the man noted.

The likely candidate took the criticism in stride and once again struck a humorous note. "I'm marking you down as neutral on the immigration (issue)," he told Pewitt.

On Lynch's nomination, finally, Bush seemed to suggest that Obama's pick for attorney general should be confirmed because "presidents have the right to pick their team in general."