Argued with Republican that's bent (8)
I believe the answer is:
wrangled
'argued' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'with republican that's bent' is the wordplay.
'with' becomes 'w' (short for with).
'republican' becomes 'R' (abbreviation in US politics).
'that's bent' becomes 'angled' (angling is a kind of bending).
'w'+'r'+'angled'='WRANGLED'
(Other definitions for wrangled that I've seen before include "Squabbled" , "Argued" .)