JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<body>
    <form>
        <select id="mySelect">
            <!-- no options provided -->
        </select>
    </form>
    <div id="myDiv"></div>
</body>

JavaScript

$("#mySelect").html('<option value="1">first option</option><option value="2">second option</option>');
$("#myDiv").html("The select element value is: "+$("#mySelect").val()+". However, if you examine the html of the select element, none of the options has the selected attribute.");