Both Smathers and Kennedy entered Congress the same year. They became fast friends which lasted until Kennedy's assassination. At the wedding of Kennedy and Jacqueline Bouvier, Smathers was chosen by the Kennedys to speak on behalf of Jack Kennedy at his wedding rehearsal dinner. In 1960, Jack Kennedy asked Smathers to give him a nominating speech to the Democratic Convention and asked Smathers to manage the Kennedy-Johnson campaign in the South.