In the 1960s, there were thousands of potential Mexican-American voters across the US, but poll taxes were so expensive that many low income Mexican Americans could not afford to vote.
Mexican-American physician and army veteran Dr. Héctor P. García had founded a civil rights group called the American GI Forum (AGIF) in Texas and several other states.
In 1960, campaign worker Carlos McCormick convinced Senator Kennedy to form a Latino outreach program to tap into the frequently overlooked Mexican-American voting population in the Southwest.
McCormick sought allies in AGIF, the Alianza Hispana-Americana, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), MAPA, and the CSO.
McCormick and Kennedy were of the mindset that the Latino population had a significant enough number of voters to sway the 1960 Democratic convention vote and 1960 presidential election.
John F. Kennedy went as far as to bring up the injustices against Puerto Ricans and Mexican Americans in the first televised presidential debate against Richard Nixon.
Garcia said the Viva Kennedy clubs, "were probably the last time an ethnic constituency operated totally independently of one of the major parties.
According to Professor Max Krochmal from Texas Christian University, the lasting effect of the Viva Kennedy Campaign is that many politicians realized they could no longer take the Mexican-American vote for granted.
Krochmal also believes an effect of the Viva Kennedy Campaign in the 1960s is that Mexican Americans produced a sense of unity that they had not experienced before.
National Public Radio (NPR) asserts that a lasting effect of the Viva Kennedy Campaign is a longstanding relationship between Mexican Americans and Democrats.