Loss of power involves Republican scandal (7)
I believe the answer is:
outrage
'scandal' is the definition.
(scandal can mean an occasion for public outrage)
'loss of power involves republican' is the wordplay.
'loss of power' becomes 'outage' (I've seen this before).
'involves' is an insertion indicator.
'republican' becomes 'R' (abbreviation in US politics).
'outage' going around 'r' is 'OUTRAGE'.
(Other definitions for outrage that I've seen before include "Incense and offend" , "Intolerable or shocking act, to argue about" , "Atrocious act" , "Shocked anger" , "Gross violation of decency" .)