Material UI popover fails to open on anchor - reactjs

Question

I am trying to have a popover appear over an icon when hovering. I tried to adapt the code from here https://material-ui.com/components/popover/#mouse-over-interaction. My solution is below. I tried to remove some of the complexities of the project setup but had to include some extra stuff for clarity.
export interface Props {
popoverAnchor?: HTMLElement;
setPopoverAnchor: (anchor?: HTMLElement) => void;
}
render()
const {
popoverAnchor,
setPopoverAnchor
} = this.props;
const open = Boolean(popoverAnchor);
return(
...
<div className={classes.flex}>
<HelpOutlineIcon
aria-owns={open ? 'mouse-over-popover' : undefined}
aria-haspopup="true"
onMouseEnter={(event: any) => {
setPopoverAnchor(event.currentTarget)
}}
onMouseLeave={() => setPopoverAnchor()}
/>
<Popover
id="mouse-over-popover"
className={(classes.popover)}
classes={{
paper: classes.paper,
}}
open={open}
anchorEl={popoverAnchor}
anchorOrigin={{
vertical: 'bottom',
horizontal: 'left',
}}
transformOrigin={{
vertical: 'top',
horizontal: 'left',
}}
onClose={() => setPopoverAnchor()}
disableRestoreFocus
>
<Typography>I use Popover.</Typography>
</Popover>
</div>
constants.ts
export const SET_POPUP_ANCHOR = 'SET_POPUP_ANCHOR';
export type SET_POPUP_ANCHOR= typeof SET_POPUP_ANCHOR;
store.ts
export interface State {
anchor?: HTMLElement;
}
actions.ts
export interface SetPopupAnchor {
type: constants.SET_POPUP_ANCHOR;
anchor?: HTMLElement;
}
export type Action = SetPopupAnchor;
export function handlePopoverAnchor(anchor?: HTMLElement): SetPopupAnchor {
return {
type: constants.SET_POPUP_ANCHOR,
anchor: anchor
}
}
DemoContainer.ts
export function mapDispatchToProps(dispatch: Dispatch<actions.AnonymizationAction>) {
return {
setPopoverAnchor: (anchor?: HTMLElement) => dispatch(actions.handlePopoverAnchor(anchor))
}
}
This fails to create any popup at all and no error appears on the console. after debugging i saw that the element object successfully makes it all the way to the the handlePopoverAnchor action meaning the state should have been changed.