John Robert Connelly (February 27, 1870 – September 9, 1940) was a U.S. Representative from Kansas. Born near Mount Sterling, Illinois, Connelly moved to Thayer County, Nebraska, with his parents in 1883. He attended the common schools and Salina (Kansas) Normal University. He moved to Thomas County, Kansas, in 1888, and homesteaded there in 1892. He began teaching school when nineteen years of age and became superintendent of schools for Thomas County 1894-1898. He was owner and editor of the Colby Free Press from 1897 to 1919. He served as mayor of Colby and as a member of the city council. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election in 1908 to the Sixty-first Congress.