JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground

HTML

<script src="https://ajax.aspnetcdn.com/ajax/jquery.validate/1.13.1/jquery.validate.min.js"></script>
<form class="form-horizontal" NAME="signup" id="signup" method="post" ACTION="users/register_submit.php" enctype="multipart/form-data">
            <fieldset>
                <!-- Form Name -->
                <legend>Sign Up</legend>
                <!-- Text input-->
                <DIV class="form-group">
                    <label class="col-md-4 control-label" FOR="name">Display Name</label>  
                    <DIV class="col-md-6">
                        <input id="display_name" NAME="display_name" TYPE="text" placeholder="" class="form-control input-md" required>
                    </DIV>
                </DIV>

            <!-- Text input-->
            <DIV class="form-group">
              <label class="col-md-4 control-label" FOR="email">Email</label>  
              <DIV class="col-md-6">
                    <input id="email" NAME="user_email" TYPE="email" placeholder="example@abc.com" class="form-control input-md" required>  
              </DIV>
            </DIV>

            <!-- Password input-->
            <DIV class="form-group">
              <label class="col-md-4 control-label" FOR="password">Password</label>
              <DIV class="col-md-6">
                <input id="password" NAME="password" TYPE="password" class="form-control input-md" required>
                <span class="help-block">At least 6 characters</span>
              </DIV>
            </DIV>

            <!-- Confirm-Password input-->
            <DIV class="form-group">
              <label class="col-md-4 control-label" FOR="confirm_password">Confirm Password</label>
              <DIV class="col-md-6">
                <input id="confirm_password" NAME="confirm_password" TYPE="password" placeholder="" class="form-control input-md" required>  
              </DIV>
            </DIV>            
            <!-- Button -->
            <DIV class="form-group">
      ...

JavaScript

$(document).ready(function(){
    $("#signup").validate({
    errorElement: 'div',
    rules:{
        "display_name":{
            required: true,
            minlength: 5
        },
        "user_email":{
            required:true,  
            email: true,
            remote: {
                url: "user/checkEmail.php",
                type: "request"
            }
        },
        "password":{
            required:true,
            minlength:6
        },
        "confirm_password":{
            required:true,
            equalTo: "#password"
        }
    },
    messages: {
        display_name:{
                    required: "Please provide your desired display name",
                    minlength: "Your display name must be at least 5 characters long"
                    },
        user_email:{
                    required: "Please provide a valid email",
                    email: "This is not a valid email!",
                    remote: "Email already in use!"
                    },
         password: {
                    required: "Please provide a password",
                    minlength: "Your password must be at least 6 characters long"
                    },
         confirm_password: {
                    required: "Please provide a confirm password",
                    equalTo: "Please enter the same password as above"
                    }
        } 
      });  
     });