Stench surrounds Republican Spike (5)
I believe the answer is:
prong
'spike' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'stench surrounds republican' is the wordplay.
'stench' becomes 'pong' (I've seen this before).
'surrounds' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'republican' becomes 'R' (abbreviation in US politics).
'pong' going around 'r' is 'PRONG'.
(Other definitions for prong that I've seen before include "tip?" , "Something piercing" , "Fork part" , "Pointed end of fork" , "Point of a fork" .)