Crossword Genius

1D election mostly gripping America, regarding POTUS and FLOTUS? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

spousal

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'regarding potus and flotus?' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'1d election mostly gripping america' is the wordplay.
'sd' becomes 's' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'election' becomes 'poll' (I've seen this before).
'mostly' means to remove the last letter (most but not all of the word).
'gripping' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are gripped).
'america' becomes 'usa' (United States of America).
'poll' with its last letter taken off is 'pol'.
'pol' placed around 'usa' is 'pousal'.
's'+'pousal'='SPOUSAL'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for spousal that I've seen is " Relating to a marriage partner".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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