Surprisingly partisan candidate (8)

I believe the answer is:

aspirant

'candidate' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'surprisingly partisan' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' is an anagram indicator (a surprising ordering of the letters).
'partisan' with letters rearranged gives 'ASPIRANT'.

(Other definitions for aspirant that I've seen before include "Hopeful one" , "One hoping for success" , "Partisan sort of hopeful" , "Ambitious" , "One with ambition" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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