WASHINGTON — The concern has been there all along, but now it’s being talked about openly: Are some men reluctant to vote for Democrat Kamala Harris because she’s a woman?

The vice president rarely refers to her gender on the campaign trail, but her key supporters are starting to make more direct appeals to male voters, hoping to overcome ingrained sexism — or just plain apathy — as Election Day looms.

Former President Barack Obama said he was speaking to Black men in particular when he suggested some “aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president.” Actor Ed O’Neill implores “Be a man: Vote for a woman” in a new ad. And Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is helping lead “Hombres con Harris ” — “Men with Harris” — to help energize Hispanic male voters.

“I think, in many ways, it’s other people who need to be the messenger,” said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women in Politics at Rutgers University.

“It’s sad, but I think she needs these outside validators.”

The clearest example is Obama who, while campaigning Thursday night in Pittsburgh, stopped at a Harris campaign field office to “speak some truths,” especially for some Black male voters who aren’t enthusiastic about supporting the vice president.

“Part of it makes me think that, well, you just aren’t feeling the idea of having a woman as president, and you’re coming up with other alternatives and other reasons for that,” he said. “You’re thinking about sitting out, or supporting somebody who has a history of denigrating you, because you think that’s a sign of strength, because that’s what being a man is? Putting women down? That’s not acceptable.”

Keith Edmondson, a 63-year-old retiree from the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert who is Black and attended a Harris rally Thursday night in Arizona, said he’s worried about whether young Black men will turn out for Harris. He said he’s trying to persuade his three grandsons to vote for Harris even though their father, who is Edmondson’s son, is a supporter of Republican Donald Trump.

“There are more Black folks supporting Donald Trump than I thought,” he said, blaming what he called misinformation surrounding Harris’ background as a former prosecutor.

Trump has a long pattern of disparaging women.

At a rally last week in Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump reacted to Harris’ appearance on ABC’s “The View,” by saying: “People are realizing she’s a dumb person. And we can’t have another dumb president.” He also criticized on his social media site “the dumb women” who host the ABC program.

Trump is set to participate in a Fox News Channel town hall this week focusing on issues affecting women. But he has more often prioritized doing interviews with podcasts that are popular with younger men.

The former president also entered the Republican convention this summer to the sounds of James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World” and the proceedings were built around promoting masculine themes, including featuring personalities from the wrestling world.

The Lincoln Project, a Republican group that opposes Trump and often produces ads meant to irk him, produced an online spot voiced by O’Neill, of “Modern Family” fame, that urges men, when it comes to Harris, to “let her lead,” before concluding: “Be a man: Vote for a woman.”

His message was far more direct than Harris often is. Despite making history as the first woman of color to lead a major party’s presidential ticket, she hasn’t publicly embraced the trailblazing nature of her candidacy as Hillary Clinton did in 2016.

Instead, she used this summer’s Democratic convention to lean heavily into her experience as a prosecutor and promise that the U.S. has “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world.”

“She is speaking, in those moments, to the people that may well not be comfortable, or trusting, that a woman can lead at this highest level,” Walsh said.

In 2020, women made up a bigger share of the electorate than men. According to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of that cycle’s voters, 53% of voters were women and 47% were men. And in 2020, men were more likely to support Trump, while women were more likely to support Joe Biden.

Polling suggests that electing a woman as president isn’t a top priority for men or women, but men in particular don’t see it as important.

Among some key demographics, Harris’ support from men doesn’t keep up with levels among women. A majority of Hispanic women have a positive opinion of Harris and a negative view of Trump, but Hispanic men are more divided on both candidates, according to a poll released Friday by Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The Harris campaign rejects the notion that Harris can’t deliver a winning message to male voters. Instead, it argues, she is working to reach them personally and complementing efforts by top male supporters and campaign advertising pushes aimed at things like top sporting events.

Rather than simply appealing to masculinity, the campaign says, it is presenting arguments built around key issues, like the economy, that can appeal to men.

Harris is on the digital cover of the latest issue of Vogue and recently taped an interview with the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, which is most popular with younger women. But she’s also sitting next week for a town hall hosted by popular radio personality Charlamagne tha God.

Senior Harris campaign officials nonetheless admit to being worried about Trump’s support among men — including white, Hispanic and Black Americans. They note Trump’s brash appeals to “bro” culture have resonated with some, especially young voters — and made some would-be voters more likely to support Trump or sit out the election.

In response, aides have also urged the vice president to explicitly mention cryptocurrency in her speeches and interviews, knowing its salience among men. Trump has a crypto venture with his family, although he differs from Harris in believing that it should be more lightly regulated than she does. The Harris campaign is also expected to launch an aggressive effort to have the vice president and Walz appear in male-skewing media in the race’s closing weeks.