| LEADERS | As heads of state, they don't succeed |
| DEANS | Martin and James, as heads of school? (5) |
| MISTRIALS | If at first they don't succeed, try, try, try again! (9) |
| REPOSSESSED | Took it back, seeing the state they were in after dodgy exorcism, maybe |
| EXPRESSES | States they are very last trains (9) |
| TEXARKANA | Southern twin cities, identically named for the two states they are located in and border |
| MONARCHY | Form of government that has a queen, king or emperor as head of state |
| DONITZ | Karl ___, German admiral named as Adolf Hitler's successor as head of state in April 1945 |
| GOVERNORGENERAL | Chief representative of the British Crown in a Commonwealth nation regarding the monarch as head of state (8,7) |
| MIKHAILGORBACHEV | He spent December 25, 1991 resigning as head of state |
| ASKING | As head of state, petitioning he'll get (6) |
| REPUBLIC | Nation with a president as head of state (8) |
| AMASS | Accumulate a million as head of state (5) |
| EDENTATE | Toothless old prime minister installed as head of state (8) |
| BIGBROTHER | George Bush, for example, as head of state spying on people (3,7) |
| NETANYAHU | Old Indian statesman losing right to install woman as head of state (9) |
| BARBADOS | Caribbean island that officially announced its intention in 2020 to remove the Queen as head of state (8) |
| HONECKER | In 1989, East Germany's politburo ousted Erich ____ as head of state in an attempt to regain public support |
| IDIAMIN | Ugandan military dictator deposed as head of state and exiled in 1979 (3,4) |
| PROTECTOR | Lord ---, title borne by Oliver Cromwell as head of state 1653-58 (9) |
