Risky holding Republican office? (8)
I believe the answer is:
chancery
'office?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'risky holding republican' is the wordplay.
'risky' becomes 'chancy' (synonyms).
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'republican' becomes 'er' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'chancy' enclosing 'er' is 'CHANCERY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chancery that I've seen before include "Embassy/consulate office" , "in which a wrestler may be held" , "Division of the High Court of Justice" , "Where Jarndyce suit languished" , "Division of the courts of justice" .)