Representative Alan Nunnelee, a fiscal and social conservative elected to Congress from Mississippi in the Republican wave of 2010, died on Friday in Tupelo, Miss. He was 56.
Elizabeth Parks, a spokeswoman, confirmed the death.
Mr. Nunnelee had experienced a series of health problems in recent months. In June he had a stroke while surgeons were removing a tumor from his brain. In addition to chemotherapy and radiation, he underwent physical therapy and speech therapy.
He was too ill to go to Washington last month to be sworn in for his third term, so House leaders let him take his oath from a federal judge in Mississippi. He took the oath in the hospital where he was being treated for a bleeding problem in his left leg.
In 2010, Mr. Nunnelee unseated the Democratic incumbent, Travis Childers, who had represented Mississippi’s First District for two years. The Republicans won a majority of House seats in that election, elevating Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio to the speakership.
Although he was able to make few campaign appearances in 2014, Mr. Nunnelee, who was a member of the House Appropriations Committee, easily defeated his Democratic challenger, Ron Dickey, who ran a low-budget campaign and had never held public office. Mr. Dickey also faced criticism from veterans who said he had misrepresented his military service.
Mr. Nunnelee had spent more than 15 years in the Mississippi Senate, where he became chairman of the appropriations committee and pushed for tougher anti-abortion laws.
During his final state legislative session, in 2010, when he was running for Congress, Mr. Nunnelee persuaded his colleagues to pass a bill specifying that no tax dollars would be spent on abortion if Mississippi ever created a state-sponsored health insurance exchange under the federal health care law that President Obama signed in 2010. Mississippi is among the states that have not created their own exchanges.
Mr. Nunnelee is survived by his wife, Tori, and three children.
Mr. Boehner on Friday called Mr. Nunnelee a “rare calming presence in the caldron of politics.”
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