Joseph Finch Guffey (December 29, 1870 – March 6, 1959) was an American business executive and Democratic Party politician from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Elected from Pennsylvania to the United States Senate, he served two terms, from 1935 until 1947.

Joseph Finch Guffey was born on December 29, 1870, at Guffey Station in Sewickley Township, Pennsylvania to John and Barbaretta (Hough) Guffey. Guffey's Scots-Irish ancestors had owned land along the Youghiogheny River since the 1780s, and prospered when railroads were constructed there. His mother was of English ancestry (Hough is a common surname in Lancashire.) Joseph Guffey was the last born of eight children: brothers James C. and Alexander S, and sisters Ida Virginia, Pauletta, Mary Emma, Jane Campbell, and Elizabet Irwin.

He attended but did not graduate from Princeton University. As a Princeton student, he became a disciple of Professor Woodrow Wilson. During Wilson's tenure as Princeton president, Guffey and other former students became supporters of Wilson's Quad Plan for developing the university. Later Guffey became active in the Democratic Party and worked to help Wilson secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 1912 and gain election.

In 1901–1918, Guffy was a general manager of the Philadelphia Company in Pittsburgh, a public utilities company, taking part in some other business enterprises. In September 1918, he incorporated a new firm, Guffey Gillespie Oil Company with E. N. Gillespie. It leased 220,000 acres in the Mid-Continent and Texas oil fields and was valued around $3,500,000 in 1921.

After the United States joined its allies in the World War I, Guffey entered the government service and was appointed a member of the War Industries Board (Petroleum Service Division), as well as the Director of the Bureau of Sales in the Office of Alien Property Custodian. He served until March 1921 receiving one-dollar salary in compensation, while handling, according to the New York Times, sums in excess of $50,000,000. On December 28, 1922, he was indicted by a federal grand jury on twelve counts of embezzlement through misappropriation of funds that he managed during his service as Director of the Bureau of Sales. George W. Storck, the Justice Department accountant, claimed that Guffey allegedly mishandled interest generated by the deposits of government funds in thirty-two banks while obtaining personal loans from the same banks. It was known that Guffey suffered financial setbacks in Mexico in his oil speculation during World War I. In 1926, Guffey was named in another federal indictment involving alleged undervaluation of property and collusion of interest in bidding regarding the sale of the Bosch Magneto Company taken over by Alien Property Custodian as an enemy-owned asset.

Joseph Patrick Tumulty, former President Wilson's personal secretary and Guffey's attorney asserted that all allegation against his client were politically motivated. His defense was that Guffy did not withhold the accrued interest in the sum of approximately $400,000, but merely was holding it until his retirement from the office. After Guffey settled in full his account at the Bureau of Sales, the charges against him were dropped. It became a part of a settlement of dubious deals made during the Harding/Coolidge administrations including Teapot Dome scandal.

Guffey served as a member of the Democratic National Committee from 1920 through 1928. He and his lieutenant, David L. Lawrence led a resurgence of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. Guffey was elected to the United States Senate in 1934, unseating Republican Senator David Reed. Guffey became the first Democrat to win election as Senator from Pennsylvania since William A. Wallace won election in 1874. In that same year, George H. Earle became the first Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania since the 19th century.

He was the chairperson of the Mines and Mining committee, and was a fervent supporter of the President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in the 1930s and later on. He supported the politics of Henry Wallace, who compared the Republicans with fascists.^{[citation needed]}