The road to hell is paved with premature declarations of Donald Trump’s political demise. Yet Democrats can be forgiven for interpreting their big wins this week as a glimpse of Trump’s end.

Not only did centrist and socialist Democrats alike sweep the board — in Virginia, New Jersey, New York City and a smattering of races elsewhere — their victories were magnified by high turnouts. Voters tend to sit tight in so called off-year elections. But on Tuesday, Hispanics and young men of all races showed up in droves. So much for Trump having forged a multiracial working-class coalition. It turns out they were only for rent.

Either way, Trump’s opponents sense a potential dawn. In the year since he was re-elected, Democrats had been suffering from the institutional version of depression. Led by ageing time servers, who seemed punch drunk by the audacity of Trump’s manoeuvres, the party’s approval rating kept falling. Those numbers were still low on Tuesday night when their candidates romped home. This accounts for some of the shock from those wins. How could a tired party with a sagging brand be left holding the prize?