JSFiddle - React, Tailwind, and code Playground
HTML
<div id="createcat">
<div class="form-elements">
<input type="text" name="categorycreate" id="categorycreate" placeholder="Add New Category"/>
</div><!-- end createcat-->
<br /><br />
<a href="#" id="showMe">show me the value of the input</a>
JavaScript
$('#showMe').click(function(){
var inputValue = $('div#createcat input#categorycreate').val();
alert('your input value is:'+inputValue);
});