Support opinion initially neglected by Republican leader (6)
I believe the answer is:
relief
'support' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'opinion initially neglected by republican leader' is the wordplay.
'opinion' becomes 'belief' (I've seen this before).
'initially neglected' means to remove the first letter.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'republican leader' becomes 'r' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'belief' with its initial letter removed is 'elief'.
'elief' after 'r' is 'RELIEF'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for relief that I've seen before include "Easement from pain or stress" , "new person on duty" , "welfare" , "Alleviation or support" , "Removal of a burden" .)