For Ohio unions and their supporters, when your No. 1 enemy decides to throw a party in your backyard, you show up en masse. You get loud. You bring along an inflatable “fat cat.”

More than 3,000 protestors marched Friday morning from the Arena District to the Greater Columbus Convention Center, where Americans for Prosperity is hosting its two-day Defending the American Dream Summit.

“When politicians are taking money from billionaires and letting them control our government, it’s no good for anybody,” said Jarod Tomaino of UAW Local 1112 in Lordstown. “This is to show you can’t buy the American dream. That’s what they’re trying to do.”

>>> Video: Views inside the rally

>>> Slide show: More photos from today's protest <<<

The protest, organized by the Ohio AFL-CIO, included a large puppet in the likeness of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was not among the five GOP presidential candidates invited to the summit. Gov. John Kasich also was not invited.

Protestors stretched roughly the entire length of the convention center.

Former Gov. Ted Strickland, who is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, was among them, calling the crowd “an indication that working people in Ohio are fed up with the billionaire class being supported by the millionaire Senate class, taking advantage of them.”

The billionaire conservative Koch Brothers brought their convention to Columbus, where down the street, Statehouse fights over union issues have been prominent over the years, particularly the passage of Senate Bill 5 in 2011, which sought to strip public unions of their power before the law was overturned at the ballot.