sandown, n.h.<u+2014>the next presidential debate will be a town hall<u+00a0>sunday<u+00a0>night featuring unpredictable questions from undecided voters, testing the two nominees in new ways. republican<u+00a0>donald trump will be on unfamiliar ground. he largely shunned the primary-campaign tradition in which presidential candidates field questions in such early-voting states as iowa and new hampshire, preferring rallies with thousands of supporters during the gop primary. he has participated in some smaller events billed as town halls or round tables in the last two months. however, they were often stacked with supporters. his invitation-only town hall<u+00a0>here on thursday was moderated by a radio talk-show host who supports the campaign and pre-screened the questions. <u+201c>this was a faux town hall,<u+201d> said manchester-based gop strategist jim merrill. <u+201c>the town hall that we know in new hampshire goes back to pre-colonial days, and that is a format trump has ignored.<u+201d> meanwhile, the challenge<u+00a0>on sunday<u+00a0>for democrat hillary clinton will be to translate her policy knowledge into plain-spoken and personalized responses. she<u+00a0>has held town halls sporadically since the democratic primaries, when she participated in numerous events. <u+201c>hillary clinton has a real opportunity in this debate if she focuses on the conversation with people on that stage to demonstrate something that not a lot of people see, which is her human side,<u+201d> said democratic strategist<u+00a0>mo elleithee, executive director of georgetown university<u+2019>s institute of politics and public service. mr. trump, after an uneven performance in the first presidential debate, is looking to reset his campaign at the town hall, while mrs. clinton will seek to carry on the momentum she gained from the match-up. most polls taken after the september showdown showed the democratic nominee with a bounce; an oct. 5 quinnipiac university poll had her ahead of mr. trump 45% to 40% in a four-way race including two smaller-party candidates. mrs. clinton also gained in battleground-state polls. town halls are among the most challenging events, even for experienced candidates. the settings typically are intimate, which makes it very risky to go on the attack. candidates also are expected to show empathy to the voters, stay on the clock and respond to questions that can range from awkward to hostile. republican consultant brett o<u+2019>donnell said that when he helped prepare former president george w. bush and former gop nominee john mccain for town-hall style debates, the campaigns set up practice sets so that they could rehearse the simple act of moving around the stage. <u+201c>it is invaluable practice to be judged in those retail-style, town halls where the candidate is exposed in a real way to voters without it being a sanitized campaign event,<u+201d> mr. o<u+2019>donnell said. a review of mr. trump<u+2019>s smaller events shows they bear little resemblance to sunday<u+2019>s<u+00a0>expected format, in which anderson cooper of cnn and martha raddatz of abc news will moderate questions from uncommitted voters in st. louis. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s not as much about debate prep as it is about going to speak to specific groups to talk about certain issues,<u+201d> said trump adviser sarah huckabee. <u+201c>it<u+2019>s having more focused conversations.<u+201d> two of the town halls mr. trump has done since the july convention were moderated by fox news television host sean hannity, who has appeared in a campaign ad for mr. trump and who juxtaposed his questions with praise for the gop nominee and scorn for mrs. clinton. <u+201c>when a campaign is hosting a town hall, you<u+2019>re going to bring a lot more friends and a lot less foes,<u+201d> said florida rep. carlos trujillo, who helped lead a<u+00a0>hispanic<u+00a0>town hall for mr. trump in miami where he didn<u+2019>t take a question from the audience. the new york businessman has struggled in gaining support from latinos, yet inside the community college<u+2019>s auditorium, the five designated speakers of cuban and venezuelan heritage all heaped praise on him. on monday, mr. trump attended a town hall with a newly formed super pac called retired american warriors. mr. trump used a teleprompter to deliver remarks on cybersecurity and then sat down to take six questions from the invitation-only audience. at<u+00a0>thursday<u+2019>s<u+00a0>town hall in new hampshire,<u+00a0>mr. trump balked at the idea that the event was <u+201c>practice<u+201d> for<u+00a0>sunday<u+2019>s<u+00a0>session. he mostly ignored a time clock that alerted him when his two-minute response time was up. <u+201c>forget debate prep,<u+201d> mr. trump said. <u+201c>i mean,<u+00a0>give me a break.<u+201d> radio talk show host howie carr read the questions. <u+201c>this is from charlene from sandown,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>she says i<u+2019>m an eighth-generation american of hispanic descent, and she wants to know, <u+2018>what would you say to convince hispanics who are deceived by barack obama, hillary clinton and the biased media to vote for you?<u+2019> <u+201d> mr. trump<u+2019>s campaign manager, kellyanne conway, said in an interview this week with msnbc that he is preparing for the town-hall debate every time he headlines a rally. <u+201c>the town-hall format is really a sweet spot for him, because he<u+2019>s the one out there with voters every single day,<u+201d> said ms. conway. <u+201c>the size of the crowd doesn<u+2019>t matter.<u+201d> mrs. clinton prepped for the weekend event tuesday<u+00a0>in<u+00a0>haverford, pa., though her town hall had the feel of a daytime talk show. the former secretary of state, her daughter, chelsea, and the actress elizabeth banks sat in armchairs on stage and chatted before opening it up to questions. campaign officials said the event was open to the public, and questions were not pre-screened. one teenager criticized mr. trump for disparaging women, allowing mrs. clinton to talk about the importance of standing up to those who judge women only by their physical appearance. in a sign of how a town-hall encounter can help a candidate reinforce a message, mrs. clinton invoked brennan leach<u+2019>s question at a women<u+2019>s leadership forum the next day and accused mr. trump of having a <u+201c>lack of respect for women.<u+201d> <u+201c>she is a very active listener and really engages with the questioners in these settings,<u+201d> said clinton spokesman brian fallon. <u+201c>she does not give some kind of rote response.<u+201d> earlier this year, mrs. clinton participated in many town halls, including some with democratic rival sen. bernie sanders that produced a few awkward moments. mrs. clinton drew boos at an msnbc town hall in february after suggesting that mr. sanders wasn<u+2019>t a democrat until he decided to run for president. at a january forum in iowa, a questioner noted that many young voters weren<u+2019>t enthusiastic about mrs. clinton<u+2019>s candidacy, adding that people his age <u+201c>think you are dishonest.<u+201d> mrs. clinton told the young man that she has been on front lines of change <u+201c>since i was your age.<u+201d> other town halls yielded rare reflective moments from an intensely private candidate. <u+201c>i<u+2019>ve never talked about this much publicly,<u+201d> mrs. clinton said in response to a question about her faith from a rabbi at a cnn town hall. <u+201c>everybody knows i have lived a very public life for the last 25 or so years. and so i<u+2019>ve had to be in public dealing with some very difficult issues and personal issues.<u+201d> <u+2014>reid j. epstein and michael c. bender contributed to this article. write to beth reinhard at beth.reinhard@wsj.com and colleen mccain nelson at colleen.nelson@wsj.com
town-hall format will test donald trump and hillary clinton - wsj
beth reinhard colleen mccain nelson