Republican supporter to recover (5)
I believe the answer is:
rally
'recover' is the definition.
(rallying is a kind of recovering)
'republican supporter' is the wordplay.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'supporter' becomes 'ally' (I've seen this before).
'r'+'ally'='RALLY'
'to' is the link.
(Other definitions for rally that I've seen before include "motoring event" , "Regain health" , "Mass political meeting" , "Motor sport event" , "Arouse for action" .)