diff --git a/src/components/base_component.js b/src/components/base_component.js
index 086724e0..cc2d003b 100644
--- a/src/components/base_component.js
+++ b/src/components/base_component.js
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ const create_bind_function = (args, instance_args) => (selection) => {
         if (element === null || (element && element.node
           && !document.contains(element.node()))) return
         state_handler.subscribe(me)
-        element.remove()
+        if (element) element.remove()
         element = create_element(
           args.init, format_arguments(instance_args), selection)
         render_()
diff --git a/src/manual_test.js b/src/manual_test.js
index 3d89803c..db610468 100644
--- a/src/manual_test.js
+++ b/src/manual_test.js
@@ -11,6 +11,9 @@ render_dashboard(`
 dashboard "Cereals":
   - h1 text: "Cereals"
   - h2 text: "By calories"
+  - dropdown my_var=foo:
+    - {"value": "foo", "text": "Foo"}
+    - {"value": "bar", "text": "Bar"}
   - bar chart:
     - attr:query: '{"columns": [(sort_by(-(.calories | tonumber)) | .[] | [.name, .calories])]}'
     - data: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ZeningQu/6184eaf8faa533e320abc938c4738c3e/raw/40f237de825061faa8721c2293b79c46979780b4/cereals.csv
@@ -18,7 +21,4 @@ dashboard "Cereals":
   - 4 columns:
     - attr:query: '.[] | {"component": "rows", "data": [{"component": "text", "args": {"tagName": "h3"}, "data": .name}, {"component": "chart", "args": {"type": "pie"}, "data": {"columns": [["protein", .protein], ["carbo", .carbo], ["sugars", .sugars], ["fat", .fat]]}}]}'
     - data: https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ZeningQu/6184eaf8faa533e320abc938c4738c3e/raw/40f237de825061faa8721c2293b79c46979780b4/cereals.csv
-  - dropdown my_var=foo:
-    - {"value": "foo", "text": "Foo"}
-    - {"value": "bar", "text": "Bar"}
 `)