To what extent have marginalized groups attained leadership posts in governmental bodies? Despite a growing body of research on the causes and consequences of women and racial/ethnic minorities’ numerical representation, little attention has been paid to their institutional incorporation and power. We propose that a wide variety of individual and institutional level factors influence the ability of marginalized groups to attain prominent positions. Discrimination and inequality in political institutions are not simple matters and so we develop a set of theoretical expectations about how these complex forces operate in determining which groups will rise to powerful positions, particularly committee chair and party leadership posts. We approach these topics from an intersectional perspective that fully appreciates the multifaceted and interacting nature of identity group affiliations. Our empirical analysis takes advantage of the fertile comparative context of American state legislatures to examine these issues. In it, we apply multilevel modeling techniques to an original dataset that covers a representative sample of 25 lower chambers from 1997 to 2007. The initial results suggest that the institutional mobility of women of color, men of color, and white women is a highly complex process that depends, to varying degrees, on interacting effects of gender, race/ethnicity, partisanship, and seniority – as well as the leadership position.