Richard Joseph Welch (February 13, 1869 – September 10, 1949) was an American county clerk and politician.

He sat in the United States House of Representatives for 12 terms from 1926 to 1949, serving a district in San Francisco, California.

Welch was elected to the Sixty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lawrence J. Flaherty.

He was re-elected to the Seventieth and to the eleven succeeding Congresses and served from August 31, 1926, until his death in a hospital in Needles, California, September 10, 1949.

This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress