Learn French: Le candidat défendra son projet pendant le débat. - The candidate will defend his project during the debate.

Défendre is a regular -re verb. To form the futur simple, you take the infinitive (défendre), drop the final -e to get the stem (défendr-), and then add the future endings. Since le candidat equals 'he' (il), we add the ending -a to get défendra.

If the candidate were a woman, would it change to sa projet?

No, it would still be son projet. In French, possessive adjectives like son and sa agree with the gender of the noun that comes after them, not the person who owns it! Since projet is a masculine noun, we must use son, even if a female candidate (la candidate) is defending it.

Does projet only mean 'project'?

It translates literally to 'project', but in the context of politics, elections, or business, it often means 'plan' or 'platform'. When a candidate defends their projet, they are defending their proposed plans and ideas for the future.

Can I use durant instead of pendant here?

Yes, you can! Both pendant and durant mean 'during' and are completely interchangeable in this sentence (durant le débat). Pendant is just slightly more common in everyday spoken French.