Democrat’s relating to nonvoters in state needing attention (9)
I believe the answer is:
disrepair
'attention' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how they can define each other.
'democrat's relating to nonvoters in state' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'state' could be 'air' (as in airing or stating an opinion) and 'air' is found in the answer.
'relating to' could be 're' (re can mean with regards to) and 're' is present in the answer.
'democrat' could be 'd' and 'd' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'isp' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'needing' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for disrepair that I've seen before include "broken-down state" , "Ruin, dilapidation" , "In need of mending" , "rack and ruin" , "poor state" .)