A girl's among the candidates (3)
I believe the answer is:
ida
'a girl's' is the definition.
'among the candidates' is the wordplay.
'among' indicates a hidden word.
'IDA' is hidden in the letters of 'candidates'.
(Other definitions for ida that I've seen before include "Mountain in Crete" , "Greek mount - Gilbertian princess" , "musical princess" , "Industry development group" , "Poetic princess" .)