Republican opponent Tom cared about (8)
I believe the answer is:
democrat
'republican' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'tom cared about' is the wordplay.
'about' is an anagram indicator.
'tom'+'cared'='tomcared'
'tomcared' anagrammed gives 'DEMOCRAT'.
'opponent' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for democrat that I've seen before include "One who believes in government by the whole people" , "Clinton or Obama supporter" , "One advocates government by the people's elected representatives" , "Believer in popular government" , "US politician" .)