Girl nearly making a Republican liberal (5)

I believe the answer is:

nelly

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'liberal' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe you can see a link between them that I can't see?

'girl nearly making a republican' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'Nell' (girl's name).
'nearly' means to remove the last letter.
'making a republican' becomes 'ly' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'nell' with its final letter taken off is 'nel'.
'nel'+'ly'='NELLY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for nelly that I've seen before include "Girl" , "Life" , "Chump" , "Fool" , "'Not on your - - !' (sl.)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

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