State socialist is chicken (5,6,3)
I believe the answer is:
rhode island red
'is chicken' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'state socialist' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'state' could be 'rhodeisland' (Rhode Island is an example) and 'rhodeisland' is found in the answer.
'socialist' could be 'red' (red can informally mean a socialist) and 'red' is located in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rhode island red that I've seen before include "possible victim of battery" , "American Communist" , "Chicken breed" , "New England communist" , "Fowl" .)