JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<div class="selectedText"></div>
<ul>
  <li>First level text
    <ul>
      <li>Second level text</li>
      </ul>
  </li>
  </ul>

CSS

div { border:1px solid; margin-bottom:1em; }

JavaScript

jQuery(document).ready(function ($) {

				var firstLI = $('ul').find('li:first');
				$('.selectedText').text(firstLI.text());
  
});