Strange behavior setting value of drop down HTML

I have observed some strange behavior with the following code, can someone explain why this does not work and how to correct it?

This does not work

// Get the value from a hidden field that contains val to set in dropdown
var selectedState = $("#stateSelected").val();

console.log(selectedState); // Returns "OH"

// Now set the value of the drop down. 
 $("#state").val(selectedState);

This does work

 $("#state").val("OH");

What is going on here?