It was a day of mourning Monday as nearly 20 people gathered for a funeral in remembrance of Nevada’s record amounts of foreclosed homes, a total that reached nearly 66,000 last year.

Black robes, a coffin and Sen. John McCain masks on robed grim reapers adorned protesters in the mock funeral, demonstrating in front of both the Republican office and the McCain campaign office headquarters in the Sierra Marketplace Shopping Center in Reno.

“We’re here to spread the truth about John McCain,” said Nellie Logan, a homecare worker and demonstrator. “McCain is out of touch with us.”

Alongside Logan were other labor union members who participated in the kick-off of the Change to Win nationwide truth campaign. The organization has visited 10 battleground states, addressing McCain’s voting records, policies and general sympathies toward the middle class.

The political communications coordinator for Change to Win, Matt Wing, explained that the purpose of the tour is to reach the numerous people affected by the financial state of the economy and that McCain is not the answer they are looking for in this upcoming election.

“We (Change to Win) endorsed Obama soon after super Tuesday,” Wing said.

Across Nevada, a group of nine workers will be stopping off in Carson City, Pahrump and Las Vegas, Wing explained, to focus on the foreclosure rates, McCain’s support of Nevada’s often controversial governor, Jim Gibbons, and the Republican candidate’s support of storing nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.

Shortly after, the tour will visit other states including Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Michigan, Indiana, North Carolina and Virginia.

Protesters present felt strongly that McCain is not understanding of their economic plight, citing a quote from McCain at a town hall meeting in West Palm Beach, Fla. on Jan. 24 saying that he thinks the nation’s economic problems are “psychological.”

“We need to bring attention to the economics of Sen. McCain,” said Judy Bagley, a cashier and speaker at the demonstration. “He doesn’t know the true feelings of the American people.”

The procession marched in through the shopping center with music before stopping between the two campaign headquarter offices.

“We are in pain,” said Alex Malbonado to the crowd, a waiter and member of the Culinary Union 226. “McCain will only worsen it.”

Protesters then placed mortgage deeds in the coffin to signify the foreclosed homes in Reno.

Across the way, Georgia Navarro, a volunteer at the McCain headquarters, watched the demonstration and admitted to feeling upset.

“This is juvenile,” Navarro said. “They can believe whatever they want to believe and I believe what I believe, but they are the ones out of touch.”

Other heated issues addressed at the protest included minimum wage increases, for which McCain had supported an amendment in 2007 to give individual states control of determining a minimum wage instead of a federally mandated wage.

“We just want people to understand what John McCain has done as a senator,” said project organizer Sarah Steck.

And finally, Bagley, when addressing the protesters, explained that a vast majority of her co-workers and friends have undergone foreclosures.

“Not only is it depressing, it’s scary,” Bagley said. “How can he (McCain) feel the pain we are feeling? But he just doesn’t.”

For more information about the Change to Win tour, visit www.worsethanbush.org.