Kamala Harris is looking to win over a bigger share of male voters in her battle against former President Trump — and she needs a boost from top allies like Barack Obama and Tim Walz to do it. With polls showing an unprecedented gender gap in the White House contest, Harris is deputizing surrogates like Obama and Walz to help her blunt Trump’s advantage with men and particularly working-class men. Former President Obama, who remains the nation’s most popular political figure, made a tough love pitch to Black men when he suggested they may be allowing sexism to stop them from wholeheartedly backing Harris. “I’m speaking to men directly — 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,” Obama told a group of Democratic volunteers in Pittsburgh.   AP Photo/Matt FreedBarack Obama speaks during a campaign rally for Kamala Harris in Pittsburgh on Thursday. (AP Photo/Matt Freed) He chided Black men for even considering Trump’s muscular rhetoric as a reason to defect to the GOP at a boisterous rally. “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,” Obama said. While Obama was talking to Black men, Walz headed back home to the upper Midwest for a weekend aimed at rallying support among white working-class voters. The vice-presidential nominee returned Friday to Mankato West High School in Minnesota, where he was a teacher and football coach. On Saturday, Walz marked the opening of pheasant hunting season by joining a group of online influencers for an early morning hunt in Sleepy Eye, Minn., an outing that is designed to spotlight his Heartland roots. Kelly Presnell/Arizona Daily Star via APDemocratic vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz attends an early voting rally in Tucson, Ariz., on Wednesday. (Kelly Presnell/Arizona Daily Star via AP) Ex-President Bill Clinton, another heavyweight surrogate, will head to the south for campaign stops in battleground Georgia and North Carolina. Related Articles Politics | LEONARD GREENE: The generosity and grace of Ethel Kennedy, a down-to-earth matriarch Politics | NYC Comptroller Brad Lander raises most campaign funds among mayoral challengers; Adams filing MIA Politics | Kamala Harris lands digital Vogue cover Politics | NYPD school safety offices raided by feds in city contracts probe: sources Politics | Harris agrees to CNN town hall after Trump rejects second debate The XY push in the final four weeks or the presidential campaign comes as Harris stares at a daunting deficit among male voters. Polls show Trump leading her by up to 15% among male voters, and even more among demographics like white men without a college degree. Harris is swamping Trump with an even larger lead among women, especially those with at least a college degree. But Democrats see keeping a lid on Trump’s advantage with men as a key strategy, especially in the seven battleground states that will likely determine the winner. Black men are considered a key constituency because Harris is counting on racking up overwhelming margins in Black communities, especially in swing states. Some polls show Trump grabbing up to 20% of Black men, which would amount to a historic underperformance for Harris especially compared to the up to 90%-plus win she is targeting among Black women. “Harris’ fate doesn’t rest disproportionately on the shoulders of Black men but Harris and Obama should make that plain while speaking directly to specific concerns men may have that have previously gone unaddressed,” said Basil Smikle, a Columbia professor and Democratic strategist. Republicans dismiss the effort as a waste of time for Harris, or worse. “Everything she’s doing on this is so cringe and inauthentic,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist. “It’s like they’ve never met a human male.”