Tom cared about the US politician (8)
I believe the answer is:
democrat
'the us politician' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'tom cared about' is the wordplay.
'about' indicates anagramming the letters.
'tom'+'cared'='tomcared'
'tomcared' with letters rearranged gives 'DEMOCRAT'.
(Other definitions for democrat that I've seen before include "Clinton or Obama supporter" , "Member of US political party" , "Advocate of government by elected representatives" , "Political type" , "Populist" .)