Not raising Republican's spirit (5)
I believe the answer is:
nerve
'spirit' is the definition.
(I know that nerve is a type of braveness)
'not raising republican's' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'republican' could be 'r' (abbreviation in US politics) and 'r' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'neve' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nerve that I've seen before include "Fibre that transmits instructions to the brain" , "Mettle, daring" , "Grit" , "Bundles of fibres in the body that transmit instructions" , "Fibre that carries instructions to the brain" .)