Fourteen Republican presidential hopefuls participated in a nationally televised forum hosted by C-SPAN on Monday that Politico dubbed a "practice round ahead of the first official GOP primary debate in Cleveland."

Candidates were given two questions each at the Voters First Forum in New Hampshire, and the interview-style format meant that the two-hour event "lent itself to presidential wannabes' squeezing in talking points," USA Today commented.

"Lindsey Graham cracked the best jokes. George Pataki talked of smelling the New York City fires of Sept. 11, 2001. (And) at least five of the candidates drove home their humble beginnings -- from Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio's Cuban-immigrant parents to John Kasich's mailman father to Carly Fiorina's first job as a secretary," the newspaper detailed.

The remaining presidential candidates at the event, held at Saint Anselm College, included former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, surgeon Ben Carson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.

Questions on foreign policy, national security and immigration dominated the forum C-SPAN had organized in collaboration with the Union Leader, the Post and Courier and the (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette -- all important local newspapers in the critical early caucus and primary states, WMUR noted.

Perry, for example, touted his decisions on immigration and promised that, if elected, "the will to secure the border will reside in the Oval Office," according to the Manchester, New Hampshire, ABC affiliate. Bush and Rubio, meanwhile, agreed that accommodations for undocumented immigrants in the United States should not include a path to citizenship.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC), for its part, criticized the GOP contenders' positions on key issues, including immigration.

"The policies of this Republican presidential field are all out-of-touch, all out-of-date, and all the same: Repeal Obamacare, reject comprehensive immigration reform, restrict access to women's health clinics, and the list goes on and on," DNC spokeswoman Holly Shulman noted in a statement.