WASHINGTON — Just how eager are Sen. Ted Cruz and Rep. Beto O'Rourke to debate?

Chaotic developments in the Senate left a contentious Supreme Court nomination hanging over lawmakers for the weekend, prompting Cruz to seek postponement of Sunday night's debate.

His team informed O'Rourke and the hosts Thursday night, and on Friday morning, the University of Houston announced that the debate was off. But within hours, after dizzying twists and turns for Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Cruz aides circled back. The Senate was off duty for the weekend after all, and the senator could make it.

It was too late. O'Rourke's team said the congressman was booked and couldn't make it.

"They were quite clear that the debate was OFF, which they decided to put in capital letters" in an email, O'Rourke campaign spokesman Chris Evans said Saturday by phone. For four days of uncertainty over Kavanaugh and the Senate calendar, "we all stayed flexible, but when they sent an email to all of us saying Sunday's debate is off, we all had to plan accordingly."

Emails provided by both campaigns show that the Cruz team did call off the debate, at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday Dallas time, and tried to reverse course Friday afternoon, once the Senate calendar shifted.

"So... wild day. With all the craziness today sen Schumer and McConnell got together and allowed tomorrow to be a voice vote so attendance was not required. [Cruz] is on the last flight home tonight and will be campaigning tomorrow and can debate if we want to pull the rip cord Sunday to keep the debate," Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe wrote to the debate hosts Friday night in an email provided by the campaign.

On Saturday morning, Cynthia Cisneros, vice president of community affairs at KTRV-TV in Houston, one of the two media sponsors, replied that O'Rourke had declined.

"Checked with David last night about a Sunday possible-he said the date is not good anymore. Is the 14th available?" she emailed, referring to David Wysong, O'Rourke's longtime chief of staff and point man on debate negotiations.

Roe's reply, also sent to Wysong and debate hosts at UH, KTRK and the local Univision affiliate: "In 24 hours they scheduled something more important than debating in front of millions of texans? Yeah right. Our offer stands."

O'Rourke was speaking Saturday night at Tribfest in Austin, before a campaign concert featuring country star Willie Nelson.

His public campaign schedule for Sunday evening still showed debate-watching parties across the state, along with livestream parties. Evans said the campaign had decided to make the best of it. As long as supporters were gathering anyway, they found a way for the congressman to reach them.

"We turned them into organizing rallies, and the congressman will be participating in those," Evans said. "We spent the entire week in a holding pattern. ... We did what we had to do to move on."

Once the trigger was pulled on postponement, he said, travel plans for campaign staffers were rearranged. Supporters who were to have gotten tickets to the debate had to be notified.

"We held our schedule for four days," Evans said. "We had to move along. We're within 40 days of an election."

Why it all matters

Cruz and O'Rourke squabbled for months over the timing of debates. Each accused the other of shying from televised confrontation, but eventually they settled on three dates.

Their first clash took place in Dallas on Sept. 21. Sparks flew. Each scored some points. Each exposed some vulnerabilities on the other side.

The race is a statistical dead head, according to many recent polls, though one shows Cruz ahead by 9 percentage points — far more than any other public polls have shown. The senator is doing far worse than Gov. Greg Abbott and other statewide GOP candidates, and has struggled to keep up with his rival in fundraising.

O'Rourke has cultivated a nice-guy, post-partisan image and has attracted remarkable sums from donors in Texas and around the country. But the state hasn't elected a Democrat statewide since 1994.

The debates are critical.

How it went down

The ticktock on this one:

On Tuesday night, Roe emailed the group warning that the Sunday date had become problematic.

"I need to flag this right now. I mentioned it to David also; leadership is telling us to expect votes over the weekend. Both on sat and sun. ...We won't know more until Thursday afternoon and we won't know for sure until Saturday morning," he wrote.

On Wednesday afternoon, Cisneros asked Roe and Wysong to provide other dates before Oct. 16 — the night of the third and final debate, scheduled in San Antonio — "in case we need an alternate debate date."

Within four hours, Roe proposed Sunday, Oct. 7. On Thursday, Wysong countered with Oct. 11. Susie Molina, director of community relations at UH, quickly responded that Oct. 7 would work but Oct. 11 might not. An hour or so later, she confirmed that either date would work.

With Senate Republicans moving ahead with the Kavanaugh nomination, Senate leaders announced that a key procedural vote would take place Saturday, and that other votes were possible later in the weekend. Roe pulled the trigger.

"David, I just left you a message," he emailed his counterpart and the debate hosts. "This Sunday is OFF. We have been informed to be available all weekend for votes. We may not have a Sunday vote but we also may and I wouldn't know for sure until that morning."

Another round of emails came at noon Friday — an hour after the Sunday debate postponement was announced. Molina proposed four dates: Oct. 7, 12, 14 or 21. Just before 2 p.m. on Friday — less than four hours after the postponement was announced — Cisneros emailed the group:

"All, just communicated with David, 7th and 12th does not work for O'Rourke. Neither does going back to Sunday as originally planned. David and Jeff, That leaves 14th and 21st."

On Friday afternoon, the Judiciary Committee approved Kavanaugh on an 11-10 party line vote, with Cruz siding with the other Republicans. But Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., engineered a one-week delay before a floor vote, forcing the White House to reopen an FBI background check with hopes of clearing up allegations of sexual misconduct.