republican vs exponent

republican and exponent both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
republican	Yes	Yes	No	No
exponent	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, exponent is a hypernym of republican; that is, exponent is a word with a broader meaning than republican:

Other hypernyms of republican include advocate, advocator, proponent.

republican (noun)	exponent (noun)
an advocate of a republic (usually in opposition to a monarchy)	a mathematical notation indicating the number of times a quantity is multiplied by itself
	a person who pleads for a cause or propounds an idea
	someone who expounds and interprets or explains

republican (adjective)	exponent (adjective)
relating to or belonging to the Republican Party
having the supreme power lying in the body of citizens entitled to vote for officers and representatives responsible to them or characteristic of such government