Almost put Nixon into office; with energy, the hounds will be after him (8,4)
I believe the answer is:
electric hare
'almost put nixon into office with energy the hounds will be after him' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'be after him' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'be' could be 'are' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'are' is located in the answer.
'him' could be 'rich' and 'rich' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'elect' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for electric hare that I've seen before include "race leader" , "one's hounded by dogs" , "that leads the chasing pack" , "Lure of greyhound racing" , "Device chased by greyhounds" .)