Stood up before person in boat with less space (8)
I believe the answer is:
narrower
'in boat with less space' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'stood up before person' is the wordplay.
'stood' becomes 'ran' (both can mean ran for office).
'up' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'before' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'person' becomes 'rower' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ran' written backwards gives 'nar'.
'nar'+'rower'='NARROWER'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for narrower that I've seen before include "With less width" , "Less wide" , "Thinner" .)