A Republican chap visiting American state (9)
I believe the answer is:
argentina
'state' is the definition.
(Argentina is an example)
'a republican chap visiting american' is the wordplay.
'a republican chap' becomes 'argent' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'visiting' becomes 'in'.
'american' becomes 'a' (common abbreviation - e.g. in organisation names).
'argent'+'in'+'a'='ARGENTINA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for argentina that I've seen before include "Ta, Grannie, for the odd country" , "Republic" , "Its capital Buenos Aires" , "South American country" , "part of 18 [SOUTH AMERICA]" .)