Property surrounding Republican states (7)
I believe the answer is:
asserts
'states' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'property surrounding republican' is the wordplay.
'property' becomes 'assets' (I've seen this before).
'surrounding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'republican' becomes 'R' (abbreviation in US politics).
'assets' going around 'r' is 'ASSERTS'.
(Other definitions for asserts that I've seen before include "Declares to be true" , "States categorically" , "States confidently and forcefully" , "States firmly" .)