An email issued by the Ted Cruz campaign that suggests Marco Rubio is considering dropping out of the presidential race was branded by the Rubio campaign as a “dirty trick” today.

The national Cruz campaign denied it was behind the email, issuing a statement that blamed unnamed “volunteers” in Hawaii.

The Cruz campaign email that circulated on the eve of the Hawaii’s GOP presidential caucus voting claimed the Rubio campaign privately “is having a debate about whether he should remain in the mix — even for his home state of Florida’s primary.”

The Cruz email cited reporting by CNN that some Rubio advisers were suggesting he quit the race. CNN, in turn, cited an unnamed source with ties to the Rubio campaign. Rubio hotly denied the CNN report, saying it was fabricated.

“Senator Cruz is up to his dirty tricks again spreading false rumors and lies,” said a statement issued by Rubio spokesman Joe Pounder. “We won’t allow him to do to Marco Rubio in Florida what he did to Ben Carson in Iowa. Floridians and voters across the country will reject Senator Cruz’s campaign of disgusting tactics because they know a vote for Cruz is a vote for Donald Trump.”

Rubio’s Hawaii Campaign Chairwoman Erin Kealoha Fale said it is “really unfortunate that we’re seeing this kind of thing, but it’s not really uncommon, from what I’ve heard, in other states.”

Fale said either the national or the local branches of the Cruz campaign “engage in these tactics right before the caucus to kind of scare voters or confuse voters,” she said. “It’s just really unfortunate because the process should be open, and we want to encourage Republicans to come out.”

A statement issued by Cruz spokeswoman Alice Stewart said that “the at-issue email and social media posting was not sanctioned by the Cruz for President campaign. The campaign became aware of the email this morning by press accounts and upon investigation learned that some volunteers in Hawaii were involved in the posting.”

“The individual(s) who sent this had no authority from the campaign to do so,” Stewart said in a statement to Politico. “The campaign’s counsel has contacted those responsible, who were in no way authorized by the campaign, and demanded that the material be removed and further use of official campaign logos for any purpose be terminated.”

The website tedcruzhawaii.org — the domain from which the email in question was sent — redirects to Google despite being previously active. However, the domain is registered to Marissa Kerns of Ewa Beach. Kerns, of Waianae, is vice president of the Hawaii Republican Assembly, according to an announcement on Cruz’ national campaign website.

The Ted Cruz Hawaii Facebook page appears to have been unpublished.

Earlier this year, the Cruz campaign was accused of spreading a similar false rumor in Iowa. Cruz supporters told Iowa voters that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was dropping out of the race, and urged them to shift their support to Cruz.

Cruz later apologized to Carson for the incident.

Hawaii Republicans will gather at 44 locations from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. tonight to cast ballots in the party’s presidential caucus voting to decide which candidates will win the support of Hawaii’s 19 GOP delegates. The voting is open only to party members, but participants will be allowed to sign party cards at the door and join in the voting.

For a list of the Hawaii GOP caucus sites for tonight’s vote, go to http://808ne.ws/1Qz36Vy.