Updated at 7:48 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 30: Revised to include TribCast interview details.

WASHINGTON — The second debate between Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Beto O'Rourke has been postponed, hosts announced Friday morning.

The debate was scheduled for Sunday night at the University of Houston. A statement from the university said that a delay was needed because Cruz would be in Washington for weekend votes.

While weekend votes were widely expected, the Senate announced Friday evening that it would go into recess until Monday morning.

The University of Houston and media sponsors KTRK-TV and the Houston Univision affiliate are working with the campaigns to reschedule, the university said.

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted to advance appellate Judge Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday afternoon, and the full Senate voted to advance the process by a unanimous voice vote in the evening. The final confirmation vote has been delayed for up to a week to allow for an FBI investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.

GOP leaders need every vote to proceed with the confirmation, and that includes Cruz, who has staunchly defended Kavanaugh and decried Democratic attempts to derail the nomination with allegations of sexual misconduct when he was a student in high school and college.

Cruz called the Thursday hearings "shameful" and said both professor Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh were "treated incredibly poorly by Senate Democrats and the media."

He ceded his time to question Blasey to a GOP-hired attorney, but took the opportunity to speak during Kavanaugh's testimony.

He joined fellow Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn in criticizing Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for sitting on Blasey's allegations for several weeks.

"That is not a fair process. We should look to the facts, not anonymous innuendo and slander," Cruz said.

Feinstein said she kept the allegations confidential by Blasey's request.

During the Senate debate in Dallas on Sept. 21, O'Rourke called for Blasey's allegations to be heard and investigated by the FBI.

In July, before the sexual misconduct allegations surfaced, O'Rourke said he definitively opposed Kavanaugh's confirmation in an interview with the Texas Tribune's TribCast podcast that was released July 12.

"On so many of the fundamental voting rights, civil rights, women's right to choose, gun safety, we have a nominee who is wrong for Texas and wrong for the country," O'Rourke said.

Friday morning, O'Rourke tweeted that Blasey showed "real courage and strength" during Thursday's hearing.

Dr. Ford showed real courage and strength yesterday. I am hoping that it will be met by a thoughtfulness and political courage from the members of the Judiciary Committee who are about to make a recommendation on a lifetime appointment to the highest court in this country. — Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 28, 2018

"I am hoping that it will be met by a thoughtfulness and political courage from the members of the Judiciary Committee who are about to make a recommendation on a lifetime appointment to the highest court in this country," O'Rourke wrote.

The last two hour-long, televised debates were scheduled to be Sunday in Houston and Oct. 16 in San Antonio.

The three debates were agreed to after much back-and-forth and negotiation between the campaigns.