Shrink to get in touch with grasping Republican (8)
I believe the answer is:
contract
'shrink' is the definition.
(contracting is a kind of shrinking)
'get in touch with grasping republican' is the wordplay.
'get in touch with' becomes 'contact' (I've seen this before).
'grasping' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'republican' becomes 'r' (abbreviation).
'contact' enclosing 'r' is 'CONTRACT'.
'to' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for contract that I've seen before include "Shorten" , "Come down with" , "Arrangement to commit murder" , "type of bridge" , "Shrink from the business agreement" .)