JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<div contentEditable="true">
"abcd"
<div>efgh</div>
<div>ijkl</div>
</div>
JavaScript
$(function(){
$('div[contentEditable="true"]').each(function(){
var text = $(this).clone().children().remove().end().text();
var $children = $(this).children();
$(this).empty().append('<div style="color:red;">'+text+'</div>').append($children);
});
});