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US territory acceding haltingly, primarily? (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

utah

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'us territory' is the definition.
(us state)

'acceding haltingly primarily?' is the wordplay.
'acceding' becomes 'uta' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'primarily?' indicates taking the first letters (I've seen 'primarily' mean this).
The initial letter of 'haltingly' is 'h'.
'uta'+'h'='UTAH'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for utah that I've seen before include "US state settled by the Mormons" , "Great Salt Lake state" , "US state, capital Salt Lake City" , "member of union" , "Mormons are found here in a hut" .)

I've seen this clue in The Everyman puzzle in The Observer.
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