Helps out crooked Republican to make chair (9)
I believe the answer is:
upholster
'make chair' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are verbs in their base form, I can't understand how one could define the other.
'helps out crooked republican' is the wordplay.
'crooked' is an anagram indicator (a crooked or disrupted version of the letters).
'republican' becomes 'R' (abbreviation in US politics).
'helps'+'out'='helpsout'
'helpsout' anagrammed gives 'upholste'.
'upholste'+'r'='UPHOLSTER'
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for upholster that I've seen before include "Cover furniture" , "Pad" , "something to do with furniture" , "Furnish seating" , "cover chair" .)