LORDSTOWN — Economic development and elected officials Wednesday were trying to confirm Vice President Mike Pence’s comment that Workhorse Group Inc. and a new affiliated tech startup interested in acquiring the idled General Motors assembly plant have secured the money to buy the facility.

Sarah Boyarko, chief operating officer for the Youngstown Warren Regional Chamber, said the agency reached out to the company concerning Pence’s statement that, “Workhorse … secured the financing to move forward to keep jobs in that community,” but were waiting for a response.

Meanwhile, state Sen. Sean O’Brien, D-Bazetta, said he intends to try to learn more Friday during a tour of Workhorse’s headquarters in Cincinnati with state Sen. Michael Rulli, R-Salem.

At the gathering O’Brien said was scheduled in May, he said he hopes “to gain answers to some important questions,” including plans moving forward, number of employees and if there were talks with GM about partnering to build one of the automaker’s electric vehicles at the Lordstown plant.

“We want to get to know them if they are going to be our neighbor, and we want to know what is going on,” O’Brien said.

Workhorse, which designs and manufacturers electric fleet-style delivery trucks, would hold a minority stake in the startup by Workhorse founder and ex-CEO Steve Burns, who hopes to purchase the GM facility to produce what he’s said would be meat-and-potatoes-style electric fleet pickup trucks.

GM announced in May it was in talks to unload the plant to Burns’ fledgling company. In March, production at the more than 6.2-million-square-foot plant stopped as part of GM’s plan to idle four of its U.S. plants.

The discussions with GM and the startup, which O’Brien said company officials called Trumbull Automotive at the May meeting, are to sell the complex in its entirety, said GM spokesman Jim Cain.

Cain said Tuesday “due diligence” work in terms of inspecting the plant, the equipment and property is happening now before reaching out to investors to buy the property, retool it and start production.

That falls in line with what the chamber knows about what’s going on, Boyarko said. The chamber, she said, is not marketing the property.

“We have had several interested parties that have the capability to acquire that property, but we’re not doing anything with them currently to put them in direct contact with General Motors. That’s kind of where things are now. So we’re kind of in a holding pattern. We’ll wait and see what happens with Workhorse should they move forward, and we will obviously respond accordingly should that not happen,” Boyarko said.

Cain said Pence was “absolutely correct” there is momentum building at Workhorse and the new company, and “we believe we are closer to the day when electric pickups start rolling off the assembly line at Lordstown.”

Tom Colton with Gateway Investor Relations in Newport Beach, Calif., which handles public relations for Workhorse, said the company is in a “quiet period” before reporting its second-quarter financial results, “which is a customary practice for publicly traded companies.”

He declined to comment on Pence’s statement. Colton did not say when the financials would be released except it would be soon.

Questions about Workhorse’s financial stability have risen since it became public the company would be connected to Lordstown plant. Also during that time, officials renewed their calls for GM to assign a new vehicle to the plant, which for about 10 years had produced one of the company’s better-selling vehicles, the Chevrolet Cruze.

Workhorse announced in June it secured $25 million in new investments to meet demand for trucks. Not part of the announcement was that any of the money would be used for GM Lordstown.