Json response returning HTML in nodejs/react page

I'm new react and nodejs and full stack development in general. I'm trying to make a login page in nodejs/react/mysql. Right now, I'm just trying to do get request for the main login page. I think I'm struggling with connecting the front and backend and the moment.

Nodejs app.js:

const express = require('express');
const bodyparser = require('body-parser');
const cors = require('cors');
const app = express();
const mysql = require('mysql');



let connection = mysql.createConnection({
 //Connection is encrypted for security reasons. 
 host: '***********',
 user: '***********t',
 password: '***********',
 database: '***********'
});

 connection.connect(function(err) {
 if (err) {
 return console.error('error: ' + err.message);
 }

 console.log('Connected to the MySQL server.');
});



app.listen(3001, () => { console.log('running on port 3001'); });

app.use(cors()); 
app.use(express.json()); a
app.use(bodyparser.urlencoded({extended: true}));

 app.get('/', (req, res) => { res.send('respond with a resource'); });

componentDidMount() react code/fetch request:

  componentDidMount() {
  // GET request using fetch with error handling
  fetch('/')
     .then(async response => {
         const data = await response.text();
        // console.log(data);
            console.log('test',data);

        // check for error response
        if (!response.ok) {
            // get error message from body or default to response statusText
            const error = (data && data.message) || response.statusText;
            return Promise.reject(error);
        }

        this.setState({ totalReactPackages: data.total })
    })
    .catch(error => {
        this.setState({ errorMessage: error.toString() });
        console.error('There was an error!', error);
    });
   } 

My sql connection works fine, I think it's an issues connecting the front end and backend. Changing following line:.

    const data = await response.text();

to:

    const data = await response.json();

Returns the following error:

  There was an error! SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in JSON at position 0

This is the html it returns in the following screenshot:

Once I figure out how to connect the front end and backend the rest of the project should be easyish to do. The react UI work and my SQl connection works fine. Any help would be greatly appreciated.